Cough hypersensitivity syndrome: clinical measurement is the key to progress.

The recent European Respiratory Society (ERS) Task Force Report on chronic cough [1] should be commended for drawing attention to a neglected area of respiratory medicine and discussing controversies surrounding the approach to this common clinical problem. Cough hypersensitivity syndrome is proposed as a new shorthand to refer to patient-reported excessive coughing that otherwise evades clinical explanation [1]. As discussed in the report, cough hypersensitivity syndrome may or may not be associated with other causes of chronic cough, and its peripheral and central mechanisms are only partly understood [1].