Topic Overview

During a medical history for acute bronchitis, your doctor will ask the following questions:

• How long have you had the respiratory symptoms?
• Do you have any other symptoms, such as shortness of breath, chest pain, wheezing, fever, or other general body symptoms?
• Have you had other recent respiratory infections, such as a cold, the flu, or sinusitis?
• Have you had recent contact with other people who have respiratory infections?
• Do you smoke? If not, have you been in contact with air pollutants or other environmental irritants, such as smoke?
• Do you have a cough that brings up mucus (productive cough)? If so, what color and how much? You may be asked to cough up a sample of mucus for testing. A cough may be dry (nonproductive) in many cases of acute bronchitis.
• Do you have any other respiratory diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, or cystic fibrosis?