Clinical characteristics in patients with allergic rhinitis and nonallergic rhinitis in Guangzhou / 中国耳鼻咽喉头颈外科

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE To obtain and compare the clinical characteristics in patients with allergic rhinitis(AR) and nonallergic rhinitis(NAR) and investigate the trends in the proportion of AR and NAR in recent 10 years in Guangzhou. METHODS 5486 patients with nasal hyper-reactivity symptoms were divided into the AR group and NAR group. Clinical data including gender, age distribution and seasonality were analyzed. RESULTS The trends in the proportion of AR and NAR during the past decade did not change significantly. Male made up the majority of AR patients and NAR patients and AR patients were significantly younger than NAR patients. Male AR patients were significantly younger than females, while there were no significant difference in the age distribution among the male NAR patients and female ones. As the age increasing, the proportion of AR and NAR patients in overall study population present opposite tendency. The main onset season in AR was summer and in NAR was winter in Guangzhou city. CONCLUSION There were significant differences between AR and NAR in age, gender and seasonality. However, the trends in the proportion of AR and NAR in recent 10 years did not change significantly in Guangzhou.