[Epidemiological study of chronic cough and obstructive ventilatory dysfunction in a rural area].

An epidemiological study (MRC--Questionnaire and spirography) has been carried out on a population aged between 40 and 69 years living in a rural area (Costeşti, district of Buzău). 440 subjects (202 men and 238 women; 83% of the population in this age group) were examined. Chronic productive cough in subjects with no other respiratory diseases was found in 8,9% of the examinated males and in 5.0% of the females. The figures are lower than those found in an urban population and in a previous survey in an other rural area. Obstructive syndrome (reduced FEV 1.0/VC ratio) was found in 5.0 and in 2.9%, respectively. More than half of the patients with obstructive syndrome had no cough; the lung function alterations found in these subjects may be due--at least in some cases--to the obstruction of distal airways which have no clinical manifestations in the early stages.