Assessment of the allergic reaction in seasonal rhinitis: acoustic rhinometry is a sensitive and objective method
Abstract
Seasonal allergic rhinitis constitutes an excellent in vivo model of an allergic mucosal inflammatory reaction. This offers the opportunity of studying the fundamentals of allergic inflammation in addition to improvement of knowledge on the basal pathophysiological mechanisms of the disease. So far, monitoring methods of disease activity and treatment efficacy have mainly been based upon subjective assessments, illustrating the impact of introducing reliable objective methods. To investigate the allergic inflammatory reaction of seasonal rhinitis through different objective methods and evaluate these as indicators of disease activity and treatment efficacy. Functional parameters, i.e. acoustic rhinometry and nasal metacholine challenge, and biological markers, i.e. blood eosinophil count, eosinophil cationic protein in serum (s-ECP) and nasal lavage fluid (n-ECP), were assessed before and at peak pollen season in 27 patients with grass pollen induced rhinitis. Patients were randomized to either nasal corticosteroid or placebo treatment and recorded nasal symptom scores. Acoustic rhinometry revealed a significant difference in favour of steroid treatment (P < 0.05) comparing nasal volumes before and during season. This differenc...Continue Reading
References
Development and testing of a new measure of health status for clinical trials in rhinoconjunctivitis
Citations
Nasal congestion and airway obstruction: the validity of available objective and subjective measures
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