Abstract

Cough is the one of the most common respiratory symptoms for which medical attention is required and may have a great impact on quality of adults' life, thus often requiring an empiric treatment with antitussive agents .There are evidence that NSAIDs are also used to improve cough concerning common cold.

We have performed a prospective study evaluating 149 patients affected by URTI treated with some combination of NSAIDs and antitussives. Cough was measured by means of a verbal category descriptive (VCD) score. We have considered two periods, 7 and 10 days respectively, from the start of the treatment. On VCD score was conducted an analysis of persistence of cough (Kaplan Meier) taking into account absence of coughing (score=0) or its presence (score>0).

The drugs more frequently used was levodropropizine and ketoprofen lysine salt. There was a statistically significant difference in time resolution of cough between the group receiving ketoprofen lysine salt and levodropropizine (a peripheral antitussive) and the group treated with ketoprofen lysine salt and central acting antitussives, in favor of the first combination. In patients treated with ketoprofen lysine salt and a central acting antitussives the median persistence of cough was 11 days, while in the group treated with ketoprofen lysine salt and levodropropizine the median was of 7 days.

The present study suggests that the association of antitussives with NSAIDs, such as levodropropizine with NSAIDs, is efficacious in the reduction of coughing days and that the combination levodropropizine and ketoprofen lysine salt shows better result compared with levodropropizine and central antitussive.