Nasal obstruction is a subjective complaint in patients with nasal disease. The ability to quantitate the nasal ventilation dysfunction would be useful for making the appropriate choice of nasal disease management. This cross-sectional study comprised of 200 adult subjects. They underwent assessment of relevant symptoms, nasal examination and investigations before undergoing active anterior rhinomanometry (AAR) assessment. A group of 88 normal subjects and 112 patients with nasal disease were included. The mean total nasal air resistance (NAR) was significantly higher in patients with nasal disease (0.33 Pa/cm(3)/s) as compared to normal subjects (0.24 Pa/cm(3)/s). There was no significant difference in total NAR between patients with symptoms of nasal obstruction and those without the symptoms (p = 0.42). It is concluded that AAR is a sensitive but not a specific tool for the detection of abnormalities in NAR and it failed to relate to the symptom of nasal obstruction.
Allergic rhinitis causes an impairment of the mucociliary function in the nose. It is hoped that treatment of perennial allergic rhinitis would be able to revert mucociliary function to normal. This study aims to compare pre and post treatment mucociliary transport time in 3 different treatment modalities. Ninety-two newly diagnosed patients with allergic rhinitis were randomised into 3 groups and started on different treatment regimes. At the end of 8 weeks, the group treated with only intranasal beclomethasone showed some, though not significant, improvement in the mucociliary function. There were no changes in the mucociliary function in the other two groups treated with beclomethasone and loratidine or loratidine alone.
Study site: ENT clinic in Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (PPUKM)
UKM