Cough : Is it common for heart attack... - British Heart Fou...

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Cough

pennyc02 profile image
6 Replies

Is it common for heart attack and heart failure people

Who are recovering to develop a niggling cough?? My mum has only been out of hospital a few

Weeks and coughs on and off every day.

Is it the medication? Or just her condition that she will have to learn to live with.

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pennyc02 profile image
pennyc02
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6 Replies
SpiritoftheFloyd profile image
SpiritoftheFloyd

Hi pennyc02

I assume your mum will have been prescribed an ACE Inhibitor drug, possibly Ramipril. A common side effect of taking this medicine is an annoying tickley cough, nearly all people have this when the start on this medicine but in most it does settle. I had this cough for about 3-4 months, now just have the odd cough.

Here's a link to the medicine on the NHS site

nhs.uk/medicines/ramipril/

and here's an article on the subject of ACE inhibitors on the BHF site

bhf.org.uk/informationsuppo...

pennyc02 profile image
pennyc02 in reply toSpiritoftheFloyd

Hi thanks for the reply. She was on ramipril but they removed this 2 weeks ago due to a bad side affect.

She’s on

Aspirin

Atorvastatin

Digoxin

Furosemide

Lansoprazole

Ticagrelor

in reply topennyc02

Check the side effects of the medication - that will answer the question. I had to come off Ramipril and Entresto because of the extreme nature of th ecough they were causing.

Entresto I was sad to lose, because I really could feel the benefits of it, and it had absolutely no impact on my kidney function whatsoever (this seems to be the measure of many heart failure medications as far as i can glean from my Cardio Clinicians)

SpiritoftheFloyd profile image
SpiritoftheFloyd in reply topennyc02

It maybe the lag time of stopping taking ramipril to getting it out of her system. I'm not aware of any of the medicines listed causing a cough. If it doesn't go away I'd have a chat with the GP

Lezzers profile image
Lezzers

Yes, a lot of people have what is called a heart cough that has nothing to do with meds. My husband has had the cough for years, he's had meds changed and had every test you can imagine. The cough is worse in the mornings, evenings and when the weather is hot/cold/windy etc

Generally, if the phlegm is clear and your mum has no breathing problems then its not usually something to be worried about but always get it checked by her medical team.

If your mum has HF then she should have been referred to a specialist nurse who will be able to talk to you about this.

shwills profile image
shwills

Yes I have HF and pulmonary hypertension I have cough my heart failure nurse always asks about it I think it is common with HF my nurse has said to up my water tabs to see if helps but speak to your nurse see want they say

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