Korean J Otorhinolaryngol-Head Neck Surg.
2008 Mar;51(3):234-239.
Significance of Peripheral Eosinophilia and Allergic Rhinitis in Chronic Rhinosinusitis
- Affiliations
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- 1Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, College of Medicine, Kyung-Hee University, Seoul, Korea. khuent@khmc.or.kr
Abstract
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) frequently coexists with allergic rhinitis (AR) and nasal polyp. The eosinophil is known to play a pivotal role in allergic reaction and chronic inflammation of respiratory epithelium in paranasal sinus. Therefore, we evaluated the peripheral eosinophilia (PE) in patients with CRS and then investigated its relationship with the AR. We also investigated the correlation of the prevalence of nasal polyp with the incidence of nasal polyp and the severity of PNS CT scoring.
SUBJECTS AND METHOD
One hundred and three CRS patients who had persisting symptoms more than 3 months and were refractory to medical management were enrolled. Thirty-six patients with AR only were selected on the basis of allergy rhinitis workup and PNS CT. PE was defined as eosinophil count of more than 4% of the peripheral differential blood count. The scoring system of PNS CT imaging was adopted from Ikeda, et al.
RESULTS
CRS with AR had the higher prevalence of PE and nasal polyp (p=0.005 and p=0.046, respectively) than non-AR. CRS with AR had the higher prevalence rate of PE than AR (p=0.001). PE was not related with the prevalence of nasal polyp in the presence of CRS with AR. Peripheral eosinophil partition rate also did not correlate with severity of PNS CT score, irrespective of AR. There was no statistical difference in PNS CT score between AR group and non-AR group, either.
CONCLUSION
CRS with AR may be associated with nasal polyp and PE but PE itself had no relationship with the disease severity on PNS CT and prevalence of nasal polyp in the presence of CRS.
