Cough: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis and Treatment

Alessandro Zanasi is currently director at the Sismer Cough Center in Bologna, Italy and president of the Italian Cough Society (AIST). He is member of the European Respiratory Society and American Thoracic Society and author of several peer-reviewed journal articles, books chapters and textbooks. He worked at the Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Universitary Hospital in Bologna from 1981 to 2016. His areas of interest include all aspects of clinical medicine within the spectrum of pulmonary and critical care medicine, with particular interest in assessment, pathogenesis and treatment of coughs. His main research focus has been the clinical and scientific aspects of acute and chronic coughs.

Giovanni Fontana is associate professor of Respiratory Medicine at the University of Florence, Department of Critical Care Medicine and Surgery Consultant in Respiratory Medicine at the hospital "I Fraticini". He is also associate director of the diagnostic laboratory of the Respiratory Pathophysiology Unit at the University of Florence. He is fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, member of the European Respiratory Society, Italian Society of Respiratory Medicine and International Society for Study of Cough. His research interests include the pathophysiology of asthma, neurophysiology of breathing, respiratory control in humans, control of airway smooth muscle, airway defense mechanisms and the clinical physiology of cough.

Donatella Mutolo, PhD, is Associate professor of Physiology at the University of Florence, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Section of Physiology. She is a member of the American Physiological Society and the Physiological Society of Italy. Her research activity has been devoted to several projects concerning the central nervous mechanisms involved in the respiratory rhythmogenesis and in the mediation of airway defensive reflexes, especially the cough reflex. Her laboratory has developed this line of research obtaining important results on central mechanisms implicated in the down- and up-regulation of the cough reflex by using microinjection techniques, emphasizing the importance of two medullary structures, the caudal nucleus tractus solitarii and the caudal ventral respiratory group.

Donatella Mutolo, PhD, is Associate professor of Physiology at the University of Florence, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, Section of Physiology. She is a member of the American Physiological Society and the Physiological Society of Italy. Her research activity has been devoted to several projects concerning the central nervous mechanisms involved in the respiratory rhythmogenesis and in the mediation of airway defensive reflexes, especially the cough reflex. Her laboratory has developed this line of research obtaining important results on central mechanisms implicated in the down- and up-regulation of the cough reflex by using microinjection techniques, emphasizing the importance of two medullary structures, the caudal nucleus tractus solitarii and the caudal ventral respiratory group.