الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Several published studies investigated the role of fiber optic bronchoscopy in diagnosis of chronic and /or recurrent cough but the results have been conflicting, therefore the purpose of the present work to study the role of fiber optic bronchoscopy in diagnosing chronic and /or recurrent cough in pediatric patients with highlighting its benefits and drawbacks.
The study was conducted both retrospectively and prospectively on
146 patients presenting with chronic cough at Alexandria university lasting more than one month (4 weeks) which maybe recurrent or not after exclusion of asthma whether by history, clinical examination or response to adequate anti-asthma therapy, and also excluding acute upper respiratory tract infections by duration and by receiving adequate antibiotic therapy with persistence of cough and no significant improvement excluding any previously diagnosed cause for chronic cough as cystic fibrosis or primary ciliary dyskinesia, chronic sinusitis, recurrent aspirations and GERD over a period of six month from June 2019 to December 2019.
All enrolled children were subjected to detailed history taking, detailed chest examinations, chest radiograph: x-ray chest and flexible fiber optic bronchoscopy examination. Other tests were performed once indicated.
The following results were obtained:
1. The studied sample shows that more than half of them were males (54.1%). Age ranged between 0.17 – 14.0 years with a mean of 4.46 ± 3.50 years. Most of the studied sample came from urban origins about 90 (61.6%) and about 56 (38.4%) came from rural origins.
2. There were no statistically significant differences between groups regarding history, clinical examination and positive radiological findings.
3. Chronic wet cough was more common than chronic dry cough in patients with positive bronchoscopic final diagnosis. There was no statistically significant differences between groups according to type of cough where P=0.822.
4. There were statistically significant differences between groups according to bronchoscopic findings in glottic area.
5. There were statistically significant differences between groups according to bronchoscopic findings in Trachea & Carina whether normal or abnormal in general where P 0.016.
6. Chronic inflammation of the airways vs infection as 113 (81.9%) of all patients was found to be the most common cause of chronic cough mainly due to chronic untreated /or sub-treated infections as protracted bacterial bronchitis.
7. Most Patients with P