Current rhinometric and flow assessments measure nasal patency and are often poorly correlated with rhinitis symptoms. To evaluate magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a new method to measure inflammatory changes in nasal and sinus mucosa following nasal allergen challenge. A pilot study (n = 6) determined the optimal technical settings for MRI to measure inflammatory change which were then adop...

Aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of a 2-year course of subcutaneous specific immunotherapy or continuous oral antihistamine treatment on the eosinophilic inflammation in nasal secretions of patients with severe persistent allergic rhinitis caused by house dust-mites. After informed consent, 31 rhinitis patients, sensitive to dust-mite antigens, were enrolled: 12 were randomly assigne...

BACKGROUND There is appreciable utilisation of antihistamines (H1) in European countries, either prescribed by physician and purchased by patients for self-medication. Terfenadine and astemizole underwent regulatory restrictions in '90 because of their cardiac toxicity, but only scarce clinical data are available on other antihistamines. AIM To investigate the pro-arrhythmic potential of anti...

BACKGROUND The recommended drug for moderate to severe chronic rhinitis is intranasal steroids (INS). However, nasal congestion could be refractory and need additional treatments. OBJECTIVE We sought to explore the benefit of oxymetazoline (Oxymet) plus INS on nasal congestion without inducing rhinitis medicamentosa. METHODS We performed a 60-week, randomised, double-blind clinical trial in...