Papers of the Week

Allergic rhinitis is one of important risk factor for developing asthma and sometimes it appears before developing full-blown asthma in affected patients. This is a socially embarrassing condition for the patients. Current estimates are that allergy in one form or another affects some 30% or more of general population. Otolaryngologists may expect about 50% of patients encountered in their daily practice to have allergy as a major or at least a contributing cause of presenting problems. Allergy has been called "The great masquerader", because of its ability to mimic an immense variety of other conditions. Objective of the study is to determine the association of allergic rhinitis with asthma. This cross sectional study was conducted at Green Life Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh from January 2018 to July 2018. Ultimately 250 interested patients were enrolled in the study. 50.8% of the participants were male and 49.2% were female. Among the 250 allergic rhinitis patients 92% presented with nasal discharge, 64.8% presented with nasal blockade, 84% presented with bouts of sneezing, 27.6% presented with hyposmia, 8.8% presented with Ocular redness, 48.8% presented with headache, 18.0% presented with epistaxis. Among them 43.2% patients were previously diagnosed as asthma by competent physicians; 39.2% patients had previous history of breathlessness that relieved with asthma medication in last 12 months. At least more than one symptom like wheeze, shortness of breath, chest tightness and cough in last 12 months were experienced by 51.6% patients. Among the 250 patients 51.2% had Rhonchi on chest examination, 54.8% had some form of shortness of breath, 43.2% had chest tightness, 59.6% had dry cough during the time of history taking & physical examination. The current study found strong association between allergic rhinitis and asthma.