Chronic Throat Symptoms: Mechanisms in Allergy
The data summarised in Table 1 suggests that patients with airway allergy experience increased rates of chronic, irritative throat symptoms in the absence of other discernible organic causes. Cough is the symptom most widely reported, which is unsurprising given its significance in lower airway disease. Nonetheless, various and often concurrent throat complaints such as globus, dysphonia, mucus sensation, throat clearing and others equally troublesome for this patient group. Potential mechanisms postulated to underpin the relationship between allergy and UCTS, as show in Figure 1 , are summarised below.