Allergic contact dermatitis prevalence in patients with eczematous external otitis.

Eczematous external otitis, because of its basic allergic nature, tends to be chronic or recurrent. The purpose of our study was to investigate the association between allergic contact dermatitis and chronic eczematous external otitis. Sixty-six patients with eczematous external otitis and 48 healthy volunteers were included in this study. All the patients were tested with an epicutaneous patch test. In the study group, the average recurrent attack rate was 6.1+/-1.5 (between 4-9 times during the last year) in the patch test positive eczematous external otitis patients, and 4.9+/-1.3 (between 4-8 times during the last year) in the patch test negative patients (p = 0.002). The epicutaneous patch test was positive in 19 (28.8%) out of 66 cases with chronic eczematous external otitis, and in 3 (6.3%) out of 48 cases in the control group. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (p = 0.003). The most common reactions were due to neomycin sulfate and potassium dichromate in this study. These results suggest that, in some cases eczematous external otitis may be considered as a form of delayed type hypersensitivity to allergen stimuli. Patients suffering from eczematous external otitis symptoms should be investigated for allergens.

Rhinosinusitis among the patients with perennial or seasonal allergic rhinitis.

Although no hypothesis is universally accepted, allergic rhinitis (AR) may play an important role in the occurrence of rhinosinusitis. This study was carried out to investigate the frequency and severity of rhinosinusitis among patients with seasonal or perennial AR. This study included 73 patients with AR. Findings related to rhinosinusitis of these patients were demonstrated by computed tomography (CT), and were scored according to the Lund-Mackay CT scan staging system. Fifty-two of the 73 patients (71.2%) were shown to have findings of rhinosinusitis. Of these 52, twenty-four patients (77.4%) had perennial AR and 28 (66.7%) patients had seasonal AR. The mean total CT staging score of rhinosinusitis was 4.2 +/- 3.2 in patients with perennial AR and 2.6 +/- 1.3 in patients with seasonal AR. Although the frequency of rhinosinusitis among patients with perennial AR was higher than among seasonal ones, this was statistically insignificant (p = 0.32). But CT staging scores of rhinosinusitis among the patients with perennial AR were significantly higher than among the seasonal AR group (p = 0.014). Although there was no significant difference between the frequency of rhinosinusitis of seasonal and perennial AR, the severity of rhinosinusitis was more severe in cases with perennial AR, in this study. Early management of an allergic disease is essential if its long-term consequences are to be prevented or minimized.