Peak nasal inspiratory flow evaluation as an objective method of measuring nasal airflow.

UNLABELLED

Acoustic rhinometry, rhinomanometry and Inspiratory Peak Nasal Flow (IPNF) are used in order to objectively assess nasal patency. These are expensive not very practical tests, except for IPNF, which is a fast, simple and low cost method.

OBJECTIVE

To assess IPNF in healthy individuals complaining of nose obstruction caused by allergic rhinitis.

METHOD

IPNF use in 78 individuals with and without rhinitis symptoms.

STUDY DESIGN

Contemporary cross-sectional cohort.

RESULTS

IPNF showed significant results for nasal obstruction, rhinorrhea, pruritus, sneezes and tearing (p < 0. 001). There was no correlation between the presence of nasal septum deviation and IPNF (p = 0. 561). We found a positive correlation between IPNF and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for nasal obstruction (p = 0. 002). In the multiple linear regression model, there was a statistical significance between the values found in IPNF with allergic rhinitis and age (p = 0. 005 and p = 0. 023 respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

IPNF proved to be a reliable method to detect changes in nasal patency, by obstructive causes as well as inflammatory causes, with an acceptable level of statistical significance, simple, easy to handle, inexpensive and reproducible.