ABSTRACT
This study was conducted on 30 individuals; their ages ranged between 20 and 60 years. The patients were divided into two groups: Group A composed of 15 individuals who were heavy smokers, i.e. they used to smoke at least 20 cigarettes per day for at least 10 years duration, and group B [control]composed of 15 individuals who were non-smokers. 73% of smokers had postnasal discharge, hyperemia of mucosa of nasopharynx and lymphoid tissue aggregation on the posterior pharyngeal wall in contrast to 13.3%, 13.3% and 20% in non-smokers, respectively. In the present work, the histopathological examination of nasal biopsies showed a high percentage of pathological abnormalities among the smokers group including squamous metaplasia of respiration epithelium [73.3%], thickening of basement membrane [53.3%], edema of submucosa [40%], patchy fibrosis of submucosa [60%], congested blood vessels [66.7%], seromucinous gland hyperplasia [60%], lymphocyte [66.7%], plasma cells [66.7%] and mast cellinfiltration [36.7%]. These findings were less among non-smokers, i.e. 0%, 26.7%, 0%, 2%, 26.7% 6.7%, 26.7% 13.3% and 26.7%, respectively. Smokers had a statistically significant higher percentage of all abnormalities, except thickening of basement membrane where the difference was not statistically significant