10 Esophagitis Symptoms
Symptom #6: Cough
A cough is a sudden and potentially repetitive protective reflex that functions to clear the airways from fluids, foreign particles, irritants, and microbes. In some cases, patients can develop a chronic cough (i.e. a cough that does not improve after 8 weeks). Postnasal drip, asthma and gastroesophageal reflux disease are common causes of this symptom. As mentioned above, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is one of the most common causes of esophagitis and plays an important role in the etiology of chronic cough.
According to different theories, GERD causes chronic cough by either microaspiration of droplets of reflux content (reflux theory), or by irritating the esophagus, thereby stimulating a common esophagobronchial reflex (due to common embryologic origin) that causes cough (reflex theory). Other causes of esophagitis can also exhibit chronic cough as a symptom.
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