tussis

[Latin.]

A cough.

1. a sudden noisy expulsion of air from the lungs.
2. to produce such an expulsion of air.

• dry c. — cough without expectoration.
• goose honk c. — a chronic, harsh, dry cough characteristic of collapsed trachea.
• nocturnal c. — in dogs associated with heart disease, psychogenic coughing or collapsed trachea.
• productive c. — cough attended with expectoration of material from the bronchi.
• psychogenic c. — dogs sometimes associate coughing with the attention received and develop it as a habit.
• c. reflex — 1. the sequence of events initiated by the sensitivity of the lining of the passageways of the lung and mediated by the medulla as a consequence of impulses transmitted by the vagus nerve, resulting in coughing, i.e. the clearing of the passageways of foreign matter.
— 2. the response elicited by applying pressure on a trachea. Increased with inflammation of the respiratory epithelium; decreased by cough suppressants and pain.