What is “cough variant asthma”? Cough asthma is a specific type of asthma in which the “central word” is asthma, but chronic cough is the main or only clinical manifestation. Clinically, about 5% to 6% of patients with bronchial asthma have a persistent cough as the main symptom, which occurs mostly at night or in the early hours of the morning (often irritating cough). Coughing in spring is highly likely to be misdiagnosed as bronchitis; however, cough variant asthma is similar to typical asthma in that patients have chronic inflammation of the airways, or increased airway reactivity; patients are often ineffective with conventional antimicrobials and cough and phlegm medications; anti-allergy medications, bronchodilators, and glucocorticoid anti-inflammatory therapy, however, can be effective in relieving symptoms. How is “cough variant asthma” diagnosed? Nowadays, cough variant asthma is very common, accounting for about one third of chronic coughs. The cough is easily triggered or aggravated by colds, cold air, dust and fumes. Patients often do not have obvious shortness of breath and no rales are heard in the lungs, but they have a combination of allergies such as allergic rhinitis and allergic dermatitis. In addition to the above symptoms, the diagnosis of cough variant asthma also needs to be combined with laboratory tests: during an attack, peripheral blood eosinophils may be increased by routine blood tests; for patients with suspected CVA, bronchial excitation test or bronchodilatation test can be performed; for those with exertional expiratory volume in the first second (FEV1) >70%, bronchial excitation test can be performed; for those with FEV1 <70%, bronchodilatation test can be performed. If FEV1 is less than 70%, a bronchial diastolic test can be performed, and exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) can also be measured. In addition, if available, tests for induced sputum and exhaled breath condensate can also be performed. How does TCM treat "cough variant asthma"? From a TCM perspective, cough variant asthma can be classified as wind-cold, wind-heat, phlegm-heat or Yang-deficiency. Depending on the patient's type of evidence, we can use Ephedra with seeds and pine soup, San O Tang, Diabai San, and Cough Stopping San, etc. Other medicines to dispel wind and stop cough include Radix Platycodon, Dali Zi, Cicada, Fengshui, Wu Mei, Wu Wei Zi, Zhan Dong Hua, Stiphula, and Centipede. Warm tip: If you have a prolonged cough in spring (especially a cough that lasts more than 8 weeks), do not take cold medicine or antibacterial agents indiscriminately, but also go to the hospital to investigate that you may have cough variant asthma.