Endoscopic scoring system in patients with allergic rhinitis.

Visual inspection of the airways in patients with chronic bronchitis and asthma by fiberoptic bronchoscopy and the relation of these findings to bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid analysis or some clinical parameters have been reported previously. In this study, we have attempted to assess and grade airway inflammation in allergic rhinitis patients (ARP) by fiberoptic bronchoscopy. During the procedure, BAL was obtained and visual inspection of airways done by the method used by Thompson et al. Ten ARP with bronchial hyperreactivity (BHR) (Group 1), 10 ARP without BHR (Group 2) and 2 nonatopic, healthy subjects (Control Group) were studied. The fluid recovery and differential cell concentration were similar in the three groups. The inflammatory scores were 11.0 +/- 7.0, 13.8 +/- 6.9, 15.0 +/- 4.2 in group 1, group 2 and control group, respectively, without showing any significant differences between the groups. There was no correlation between the inflammatory score and PC20 to methacholine. This indicates that BHR in ARP will need explanations other than the inflammation within airways.