CORRELATIONS BETWEEN COMPLAINTS, INFLAMMATORY CELLS AND MEDIATOR CONCENTRATIONS IN NASAL SECRETIONS AFTER NASAL ALLERGEN CHALLENGE AND DURING NATURAL ALLERGEN EXPOSURE

A quantitative determination of the inflammatory mediators was perform ed and correlated with complaints and the measurement of the inflammat ory cells in nasal secretions of 18 seasonal allergic rhinitis patient s (group 1) outside the pollen season and 40 symptomatic patients (gro up 2) with seasonal allergic rhinitis during the pollen season. Ten no nallergic subjects (group 3) were also studied as a normal control gro up. In group 1, 17 (94%) out of 18 patients had an immediate response of nasal symptoms accompanied by a significant increase of histamine, leukotriene C-4 (LTC(4)), and tryptase 5 min after nasal allergen chal lenge (NAG). One hour later, a simultaneous increase was seen both in the percentage of the eosinophils and in the eosinophil cationic prote in (ECP) concentration. The eosinophil count reached a peak 2 h after NAC with a duration of 8 h, while the highest ECP level was reached on ly after 24 h with no clear-cut plateau. In group 2, a high percentage of eosinophils was observed. Mostly one observed significantly (p<0.0 1) higher concentrations of ECP, LTC(4) and histamine but not of trypt ase than the baseline values of group 1. The authors concluded that du ring the pollen season allergic rhinitis reflects mainly a chronic sta te of allergic inflammation of the nasal mucosa involving various infl ammatory components induced by one or more episodes of early-phase typ e allergic reaction. Infiltration of eosinophils and consequently rele ase of the various late-phase inflammatory mediators into the nasal se cretions are certainly believed to be the predominant pathophysiologic condition in the patients.