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Eur Respir J 2002; 19:202
Copyright ©ERS Journals Ltd 2002

Prevalence of nasal symptoms and their relation to self-reported asthma and chronic bronchitis/emphysema

J. Bousquet1, B. Leynaert2 and F. Neukirch2

1 CHU Montpellier and 2 INSERM U 408, France

To the Editor:

We read with interest the paper by Montnémery et al. 1 reporting nasal symptoms in patients with asthma and chronic bronchitis/emphysema (CBE). This study is of particular interest since it is the first, to our knowledge, to assess nasal symptoms in CBE. It seems that the results can be interpreted since an agreement of ~70% was found between the diagnosis of asthma or CBE made in the study and a doctor's diagnosis. However, some patients with CBE may be falsely classified and may have other respiratory diseases, including asthma. Moreover, patients aged 29 yrs are unlikely to have CBE and the authors showed, in another paper 2, that the prevalence of CBE was 3.3% in subjects aged between 20–29 yrs. In order to reinforce the results of the study, it would have been interesting to study the association of nasal symptoms with asthma and CBE depending on the age groups.

A second point, regarding this study may be discussed. The characteristics of nasal symptoms appear to differ in asthma and CBE. In their first paper, Montnémery et al. 2 reported "allergic eye-nose catarrh (hay fever)". It would also be interesting to discuss this association with asthma and CBE.

Finally the authors reported that nasal symptoms probably due to nonallergic mechanisms (provoked by cold air/damp air) were significant risk factors for asthma. This is in accordance with the results from an analysis of the European Community Respiratory Health Survey data, showing that rhinitis is associated with an increased risk of asthma in nonatopic subjects with normal immunoglobulin-E levels 3.

References

  1. Montnemery P, Svensson C, Adelroth E, et al. Prevalence of nasal symptoms and their relation to self-reported asthma and chronic bronchitis/emphysema. Eur Respir J 2001;17:596–603.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  2. Montemery P, Adelroth E, Heuman K, et al. Prevalence of obstructive lung diseases and respiratory symptoms in southern Sweden. Respir Med 1998;92:1337–1345.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  3. Leynaert B, Bousquet J, Neukirch C, Liard R, Neukirch F. Perennial rhinitis: an independent risk factor for asthma in nonatopic subjects: results from the European Community Respiratory Health Survey. J Allergy Clin Immunol 1999;104:301–304.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]




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