[Value of eosinophilia in blood and nasal exudate in the diagnosis of different types of rhinitis].

162 patients with different patterns of rhinitis were studied. In 94 a diagnosis of allergic rhinitis was made. The remaining 68 were considered as nonallergic rhinitis. In the allergic group, 64 had seasonal allergic rhinitis. 24 of them were studied during the hay fever season and 40 out of the hay fever season. Positive nasal smear eosinophilia (up to 10%) was found in 56 of 96 patients from the allergic group (59.5%), 21 of them had perenneal allergic rhinitis and 35 had seasonal allergic, of those 20 were studied during the hay fever season. In the non allergic group, 35 were diagnosed as intrinsic rhinitis and 33 as cholinergic rhinitis. Positive nasal smear eosinophilia could be demonstrated in 15 out of 35 cases of intrinsic rhinitis (42.8%), but could not be shown in patients suffering from cholinergic rhinitis. Peripheral blood eosinophilic cells were found in normal values in all patients in spite of the character of the rhinitis. These results suggest that nasal smear eosinophilic cells count is a useful orientative datum in the diagnosis of allergic and intrinsic rhinitis (59.5% and 42.8% respectively in our cases) but is not useful in the diagnosis of cholinergic rhinitis (not one out of 33 cases). Blood eosinophil cells count had no value in nasal allergy diagnosis.