Original Article Cough of more than two weeks – Time to think beyond pulmonary TB Manu Chopra a, * , D. Bhattacharyya b , M.S. Barthwal c , G.D.S. Madan d , B. Chakrabarthy e , I.M. Pandey a , Meenakshi Chopra f a Pulmonologist, Army Hospital (Research & Referral), New Delhi, India b Consultant & Head of Dept of Pulmonology, Army Hospital (Research & Referral), New Delhi, India c Consultant Pulmonologist, Military Hospital (Cardiothoracic Centre), Pune, India d Radiologist, Army Hospital (Research & Referral), New Delhi, India e Pathologist, Army Hospital (Research & Referral), New Delhi, India f Medical Officer and Statistician, Base Hospital, New Delhi, India i n d i a n j o u r n a l o f t u b e r c u l o s i s x x x ( 2 0 1 7 ) x x x – x x x a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 6 February 2017 Accepted 11 May 2017 Available online xxx Keywords: Pulmonary tuberculosis Cough Obstructive airway diseases COPD Asthma a b s t r a c t Background: Cough of more than two weeks has become sine quo non with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) in a developing country like India. The causes may be different in patients reporting to respiratory OPD vis a vis general OPD. Aims and objectives: To study the prevalence of PTB and causes of cough other than PTB among respiratory OPD attendees with cough of more than two weeks duration. Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out over two years in respiratory OPD of a tertiary care chest center of Indian armed forces. Of the 13,004 patients, 505 non HIV PTB suspects were included. Patients with definitive diagnosis of chronic cough were excluded. Efforts were made to establish diagnosis of pulmonary TB using clinical, microbiological and radiological features. However, patients were also subjected to further evaluation (spirom- etry, bronchoscopy, CECT) based on clinical features, radiological and lab profile to establish definitive diagnosis. Results: Out of the 505 patients, 10.5% patients had smear positive pulmonary TB, 13.5% smear negative PTB, bronchial asthma (24%), COPD (9.3%), diffuse parenchymal lung diseases (DPLD's) (12.5%), bronchiectasis (6.3%), lung cancer (5.3%) and congestive cardiac failure (4.2%). Conclusion: Though prevalence of PTB in the study correlated well with the national statis- tics, but a significant number of patients had other causes of chronic cough, especially, obstructive airway diseases and DPLDs. Thus, there is a need to spread awareness regarding other causes of chronic cough and all efforts should be made to establish alternate diagnosis especially in patients who do not conclusively have PTB. © 2017 Tuberculosis Association of India. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Dept of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine, Army Hospital (R&R), Dhaulakuan, New Delhi, India. Tel.: +91 9199881977. E-mail address: drmanuchopra@gmail.com (M. Chopra). IJTB-204; No. of Pages 5 Please cite this article in press as: Chopra M, et al. Cough of more than two weeks – Time to think beyond pulmonary TB, Indian J Tuberc. (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijtb.2017.05.007 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ indian-journal-of-tuberculosis/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijtb.2017.05.007 0019-5707/© 2017 Tuberculosis Association of India. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.