ACCP evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for cough and the common cold was published with an objective to review the literature on cough and the common cold.

Methods

–        MEDLINE was searched through May 2004 for studies published in the English language since 1980 on human subjects using the medical subject heading terms “cough” and “common cold.”

–        Selected case series and prospective descriptive clinical trials were reviewed.

–        Additional references from these studies that were pertinent to the topic were also reviewed.

Results:

–        The common cold is believed to be the single most common cause of acute cough.

–        The most likely mechanism is the direct irritation of upper airway structures.

–        It is also clear that viral infections of the upper respiratory tract that produce the common cold syndrome frequently produce a rhino-sinusitis.

–          In the setting of a cold, the presence of abnormalities seen on sinus roentgenograms or sinus CT scans are frequently due to the viral infection and are not diagnostic of bacterial sinus infection.

Conclusion:

–        Cough due to the common cold is probably the most common cause of acute cough.

–        In a significant subset of patients with “post infectious” cough, the etiology is probably an inflammatory response triggered by a viral upper respiratory infection (ie, the common cold).

–        The resultant subacute or chronic cough can be considered to be due to an upper airway cough syndrome, previously referred to as postnasal drip syndrome.

–        This process can be self-perpetuating unless interrupted with active treatment.

Reference: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16428695