THE SYNDROME OF COUGH SYNCOPE

Abstract

Described largely in foreign writings and reported under a variety of names² in obscure journals, the clinical entity of cough syncope is not well known to American physicians. Recent cardiodynamic studies of the syndrome by McCann and colleagues¹ stimulated interest, but there is in the American literature no full description of the clinical picture. From personal observation of 25 examples of the condition a distinct clinical syndrome has crystallized. Although certainly known to Heberden² and possibly to Sydenham,³ syncope following cough was first clearly described by Charcot⁴ in 1876. Much information is found in the French literature, particularly