Just when your thinking your finally over a cold, your chest starts to feel sore and you develop an irritating cough. Later, you might get the chills or a slight fever.

If these symptoms sound familiar, you might have acute bronchitis, a condition that occurs when the inner walls that line the main air passageways of your lungs (bronchial tubes) become inflamed. Bronchitis often follows a respiratory infection such as a cold. And just as most people get occasional colds, virtually everyone has bronchitis at least once.

Most cases of acute bronchitis disappear within a few days without lasting effects, although coughs may linger three weeks or more. But if you have repeated bouts of bronchitis, see your doctor. You may have a more serious health problem, such as asthma, chronic bronchitis or emphysema — a disease that causes progressive lung damage. You're much more likely to develop these conditions if you smoke

Still, these signs can be deceptive. You don't always produce sputum when you have bronchitis, and children often swallow coughed-up material, so parents may not know it's infected.

Other signs and symptoms of bronchitis may include:

• Soreness and a feeling of constriction or burning in your chest
• Breathlessness
• Wheezing
• Chills
• Overall malaise and slight fever

Sometimes chronic sinusitis — an ongoing infection in the lining of one or more of the cavities in the bone around your nose — can mimic bronchitis. That's because the signs and symptoms of chronic sinusitis include a thick, yellow or green discharge and a chronic cough that's triggered when you try to clear your throat of mucus draining from your sinuses