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Suggest Treatment For Dry Cough
Hello Dr Rynne, I am a nurse with ICU background. My best friend and fellow nurse had a dry cough today and I asked her if she was getting sick. She said for the past week off and on, she feels like she is having palpitations. When she coughs, the heart rate drops but she then is missing beats. When I took her pulse, I would say a 2 beat pause (PVC???). I asked her to call her PCP and get an order for an EKG. I suggested she go to the hospital for the EKG when she is having her coughing episodes that can last a few moments to hours. We live approximately 15 minutes away from a hospital that has walk-in testing. This is paroxysmal tachycardia of some type, yes? no? What do you think it is? Thank you, Nita
posted on
Sun, 2 Aug 2015
Medically reviewed by
Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team
Tue, 19 May 2020
Answered on
Sat, 23 May 2020
Last reviewed on
Hi,
You can't tell on the question. We can give general information though. One particularly worrisome cause of cough can be due to heart failure producing a backing up of blood into the lungs and increasing blood pressure on them. This can be from the heart not pumping due to valves, muscles, electrical or other. BUT, veins popping out of neck and damp sounding lungs would be part of any of these. That's basically a serious emergency. EKG is good for a rhythm issue if it occurs at the time the EKG is taken. It is pretty good for all the other causes too.
Take care. Hope I have answered your question. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards,
Dr. Matt Wachsman, Addiction Medicine Specialist
You can't tell on the question. We can give general information though. One particularly worrisome cause of cough can be due to heart failure producing a backing up of blood into the lungs and increasing blood pressure on them. This can be from the heart not pumping due to valves, muscles, electrical or other. BUT, veins popping out of neck and damp sounding lungs would be part of any of these. That's basically a serious emergency. EKG is good for a rhythm issue if it occurs at the time the EKG is taken. It is pretty good for all the other causes too.
Take care. Hope I have answered your question. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards,
Dr. Matt Wachsman, Addiction Medicine Specialist
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