ABSTRACT
The aim of this prospective study was to examine the skin reactivity to four vasomotor agents in chronic, non-infectious rhinitis patients, and to determine whether non-allergic rhinitis (NAR) patients differ from allergic rhinitis (AR) patients. Seventy four patients with NAR and 44 with AR were subjected to intradermal testing with papaverine (5 mg/ml), metacholine (0.02, 0.2 and 2.0 mg/ml), histamine (0.01, 0.1, 1.0 and 10.0 micrograms/ml), compound 48/80 (0.01, 0.1, 1.0 and 10.0 micrograms/ml) and saline. It was found that the frequency of pathological skin reactivity to papaverine in the patients with NAR (25/74) was significantly greater (p = 5.0 x 10(-3)) then in the patients with AR (4/44). No significant inter-group difference in skin reactivity to metacholine, histamine, compound 48/80 and saline was observed. The frequency of the total pathological skin reactivity to vasomotor agents, singly and in combinations, in patients with NAR (80%) was significantly greater (p = 0.03) than in patients with AR (61%). These findings suggested that the pathological skin reactivity to papaverine, metacholine, histamine and compound 48/80 was a feature of chronic, non-infectious rhinitis patients and it was more frequently associated with non-allergic than with the allergic etiology of rhinitis.
