Association of nasal polyposis with peripheral blood eosinophilia and fungal infection (a tertiary care experience)

Aim: to determine the association of nasal polyps with peripheral blood eosinophilia and fungal infection. study design: descriptive cross sectional study. place and duration of study: pathology department of king edward medical university mayo hospital lahore from july 2015 to december 2015. methodology: total of 50 biopsies of nasal polyps/ mass were studied. reports of complete blood counts were collected from investigation records of patients to check eosinophil count in peripheral blood before surgery.histological slides of each patient presenting with nasal polyps were reported by the consultant pathologist and fungus present was identified as allergic fungal mucin which are tigroid sheets of eosinophils and fungal debri (local or diffuse) and blood report was collected to check the eosinophil count (more than 5 was taken as eosinophilia). the study was conducted for six months from august 2015 to december 2015.collected data was analyzed through computer software spss 16.0. mean and standard deviation were calculated for quantitative variables i.e. age,eosinophilic count and fungal infection. results: there were 50 patients with age range of 11-60 years. mean age was 27± 13.4. there were 26 (52%) females and 24 (48%) males. the males were on the average distributed in all age groups majority of females were in age group 12-30 years (84.6%). regarding association between allergic nasal polyp and eosinophilic count significant association (p=0.04) was noted. the strength of association between these two factors was 30% by contingency coefficient (p=0.26).histologically fungus was diagnosed as allergic fungal mucin (tigroid sheets of eosinophils and fungal debri) in 10 (20%) cases and rest 40(80%) were free of fungal infection. patient's history of allergy like sneezing,rhinorrhoea,itching were also noted. allergic symptoms were reported in 37(74%) while 13(26%) had no such history. only 8 (16%) of patients of nasal polyps showed peripheral eosinophilia. conclusion: nasal polyps are more common in females than males. the minimum age is 12 years and maximum age for presentation of nasal polyps is 60 years. fungal infections are also associated with polyp formation. allergic nasal polyps are more common than non allergic nasal polyps. peripheral blood eosinophilia has poor association with nasal polyps.