Status of patients with allergic rhinitis combined with bronchial asthma in Nanjing and the correlation of clinical characteristics

Fei XUE; Zeqing LI; Qiuping WANG; Xiaofeng XIN; Manjie JIANG; You CHENG; Junfeng JI

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:

Both Allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma are allergic diseases of respiratory tract. They frequently coexist in the same patients.

OBJECTIVE:

To study the incidence of allergic rhinitis in patients with bronchial asthma in Nanjing, and to analyze the correlation of clinical characteristic between allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma.

DESIGN:

The questionnaire survey.

SETTING:

Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Department of Respiratory, Nanjing General Hospital of Nanjing Military Area Command of Chinese PLA.

PARTICIPANTS:

A total of 134 patients with bronchial asthma including 73 males and 61 females were selected form Nanjing General Hospital of Nanjing Military Area Command of Chinese PLA from February 2001 to April 2005. Their ages ranged from 3 to 72 years. Severity of asthma of all patients was classified based on Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA). The diagnostic criteria of allergic rhinitis were established referred to the guideline of Haikou Meeting (November, 1997). All patients provided the confirmed consent.

METHODS:

The questionnaire survey of 134 bronchial asthma patients from the city of Nanjing was conducted. Their age, classification, severity, treatment status, and the family history of all 134 patients were investigated in details. Differences of age, age at onset, and course of disease between rhinitis and asthma of all patients were examined by two independent t tests. The correlation between clinical characteristics of allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma was analyzed by Spearman rank correlation.MAIN OUTCOME

MEASURES:

Incidence of allergic rhinitis in patients with bronchial asthma and the correlation of clinical characteristic between allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma.RESULTS：Of all 134 bronchial asthma patients，82(61．2％,82/134)were accompanied with allergic rhinitis．There were 45 males and 37 females．Of 82 patients with allergic rhinitis accompanying with bronchial asthma，severity was classified into grade Ⅰ (mild pause,n=56)，grade Ⅱ (mild persistence，n=21)，grade Ⅲ (moderate persistence，n=4)，and grade Ⅳ (severe persistence，n=1)．In addition,allergic rhinitis was classified into periodicity (n=65) and persistence(n=17)．According to the classification and seventy system recommended in ARIA,63 patients had mild symptoms and 19 had moderate and severe symptoms．Severity of allergic rhinitis was positively related to that of bronchial asthma(r=0.689,P＜0．01)．

CONCLUSION:

The morbidity of allergic rhinitis combining with bronchial asthma is high in Nanjing, China. While, their classification and severity are highly coherent.