Influence of nasal septum deformity on nasal obstruction, disease severity, and medical treatment response among children and adolescents with persistent allergic rhinitis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of different types of nasal septum deformity (NSD) on nasal obstruction, rhinitis severity and response to medical treatment among pediatric persistent allergic rhinitis (PER) patients. METHODS: In a prospective, real-life study, 150 children and adolescents (mean age 13 ± 2.8 years, females 32.6%) diagnosed with PER according to ARIA guidelines were assessed by nasal endoscopy for NSD according to Mladina's classification, their response to medical treatment (intranasal steroids and antihistamines or antileucotriens), the presence of comorbidities, rhinitis severity (modified-ARIA criterion) and nasal obstruction visual analog scale score (VAS). RESULTS: Most patients (87%) had 1 of the 7 types of septal deformities. There was a high prevalence of bilateral (types 4 and 6; 46%) and anterior unilateral (types 1 and 2; 25%) NSD in patients not responding to medical treatment. Type 4 (OR = 6.4; p = 0.005) or type 6 (OR = 4.4; p = 0.03) NSD increased the risk of lack of improvement with medical treatment. Coexistence of anterior unilateral or bilateral NSD with severe turbinate enlargement increased >20-fold the risk of lack of improvement. Patients with bilateral NSD presented greater rhinitis severity. Non-responder adolescents displayed higher prevalence of bilateral NSD than children (53% vs. 23%; p = 0.02). Nasal obstruction VAS was higher for patients with anterior than posterior NSD, and greater for patients with bilateral NSD than any other type of septal morphology. CONCLUSION: Nasal endoscopy shows that bilateral and unilateral anterior nasal septum deformities are strongly associated with a poor response to medical treatment, greater rhinitis severity and higher nasal obstruction VAS. Consequently, nasal endoscopy is necessary in the PER patients to understand the disease severity as well as to plan a specific surgical treatment in order to improve nasal obstruction, disease severity, and patient's quality of life.

Nasal obstructive disorders impair health-related quality of life in adolescents with persistent allergic rhinitis: A real-life study.

BACKGROUND: We previously reported a higher prevalence of nasal obstructive disorders (NOD) in pediatric patients with persistent allergic rhinitis (PER) not responding to medical treatment. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of NOD on quality of life (QoL) in this population. METHODS: Real-life prospective study including 142 patients (41 children, 6-11 years old and 101 adolescents, 12-17 years old) with moderate and severe PER. After 2 months of medical treatment (intranasal steroids and antihistamines), patients were asked whether their symptoms had improved (yes/no) and classified accordingly in R, responders and NR, non-responders. Nasal symptoms (visual analog scale, VAS), NOD (nasal endoscopy), and QoL (PRQLQ, AdolQRLQ) were also assessed. RESULTS: Sixty-nine adolescents and 24 children were included in the NR group. NR presented worse QoL overall scores in adolescents (3.16±1.1 vs 1.63±0.99; P=.00001) and children (2.19±0.82 vs 1.51±0.77, P=.02). Medical treatment failure was associated with worse outcomes in QoL (adolescents OR: 1.6, P<.0001; children OR: 1.04, P=.036). Female adolescents presented worse QoL scores than males (3.19 vs 2.36, P=.001). The presence of obstructive septal deviation (OR: 1.02, P=.005), obstructive turbinate hyperplasia (OR: 1.03, P=.0006), and coexistence of both (OR=2.06, P=.001) was associated with worse QoL in adolescents. A strong and highly significant correlation was found between nasal symptoms VAS and QoL. CONCLUSION: The presence of NOD, particularly in adolescents, is associated with poor QoL outcomes. Assessment of NOD in pediatric PER should be considered an essential approach to determine the response to treatment and its impact on patient's QoL.

Nasal obstructive disorders induce medical treatment failure in paediatric persistent allergic rhinitis (The NODPAR Study).

BACKGROUND: Allergic rhinitis (AR) is the most common chronic disease among children. To characterize the disease, a modified classification of severity (m-ARIA) has recently been validated in AR children. When medical treatment fails, surgery for nasal obstructive disorders (NOD) may be a therapeutic option. Our objective was to assess the prevalence of NOD and their influence in medical treatment response among children with persistent AR (PER). METHODS: In a prospective, real-life study, 130 paediatric PER patients (13.1 ± 2.8 years, females 31.5%, severe rhinitis 49%) referred from Allergy to ENT department were assessed for their response (R, responders; NR, non-responders) to medical treatment (intranasal steroids and antihistamines or antileukotrienes) by direct questioning and nasal symptom visual analogue scale, the presence of NOD (septal deformity, turbinate enlargement and adenoidal hyperplasia), comorbidities, nasal symptoms, rhinitis severity (modified ARIA criterion) and asthma control (International Consensus On Pediatric Asthma criterion). RESULTS: After 2 months of treatment, the NR group presented a higher prevalence of obstructive septal deformity and severe inferior turbinate enlargement when compared with the R group. Higher septal deformity and turbinate enlargement scores were strongly associated with treatment refractoriness. The prevalence of severe PER was also higher for the NR group. Higher asthma control scores were associated with the probability of treatment-induced improvement. CONCLUSIONS: In paediatric PER patients, medical therapy refractoriness was associated with NOD, mainly septal deformity and turbinate enlargement. In those patients, ENT examination will facilitate an early NOD diagnosis in order to indicate potential corrective surgery.

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in pediatric patients with common variable immunodeficiency.

UNLABELLED: Common variable immunodeficiency (CVID) is a heterogeneous primary immunodeficiency associated with an increased risk of malignancy in adulthood, with lymphoma as one of the major causes of death. The aim of this study is to describe those malignancies detected in our cohort of pediatric CVID patients. We reviewed the clinical and laboratory data and the treatments and their outcomes in all pediatric CVID patients from our institution that developed a neoplasia. Four malignancies were diagnosed in three out of 27 pediatric CVID patients. Three malignancies were non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) of B cell origin (mean age at diagnosis: 8 years old), and the remaining was a low-grade astrocytoma. Among NHL, two were mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphomas and one was associated with Epstein-Barr virus infection. NHL developed before CVID diagnosis in two patients. CVID patients showed different clinical phenotypes and belonged to different groups according Euroclass and Pediatric classification criteria. CONCLUSIONS: Malignancies, especially lymphoma, may develop in pediatric CVID patients with no previous signs of lymphoid hyperplasia and even before CVID diagnosis. Consequently, strategies for cancer prevention and/or early diagnosis are required in pediatric CVID patients.