Case study 1

An 18-year-old man is referred to the respiratory clinic for review of possible asthma

The patient reports receiving a clinical diagnosis of ‘mild asthma’ as a child but has never had formal pulmonary function tests, and has been on PRN salbutamol for years. 

His main complaint is...

Acute cough with chest signs in children can be caused by a number of different conditions including viral-induced wheeze, infective exacerbations of asthma, bronchiolitis and community-acquired pneumonia. 

It is important to note that it can be difficult to be definite about the cause of an acute cough in...