A Single Center Study of Clinical and Paraclinical Aspects in Iranian Patients with Allergic Rhinitis

Allergic rhinitis (ar) is a common form of allergic disorder in iran and rest of the world.this study was conducted to investigate the symptoms and paraclinical aspects of this allergyamong iranian patients.a total of 206 patients (51.5%: male), with one of the specific symptoms of ar, frommarch 2005 to march 2007 were enrolled in the study. a written questionnaire wascompleted for each patient. furthermore, paraclinical evaluations including cbc, serum totalige, spirometry and skin prick test (spt) with common allergens were done for the patients.the ages of our patients ranged from 2 to 62 years of age (mean age of 18 - /+11.8years). mean age of onset of symptoms was 11.6 -/+ 9.9 years. in 82% of cases histories ofother allergic diseases were seen in patients or their family members. rhinorrhea was themost common symptom in our patients (77.9%). frequencies of mild persistent, moderate .severe persistent, mild intermittent and moderate .severe intermittent types of ar were20.5%, 41%, 21% and 17.5%, respectively. frequencies of positive spts in all cases, patientswith persistent and intermittent allergic rhinitis were 86.7%, 88.2% and 84.1%, respectively.the most common allergens in positive spts, were trees, weeds, grasses and dermatophagoidespteronysinus. about 55.5 % of patients showed elevated total ige levels (. 100 iu/ml).abnormal spirometry results were seen in 33.5% of cases.the present study showed that among paraclinical investigations for ar, positive sptswith aeroallergens, are more consistent with clinical findings. regarding high ferequency ofabnormal spirometry, we recommend that clinical suspicion about hyperreactive airwaydisease in ar patients is mandatory and performing spirometry for these cases is necessarywhenever possible.