以鼻塞問卷、鼻阻壓與聲反射鼻測量評估藥物治療病患之鼻塞

Nasal obstruction is a common complaint of nasal diseases in clinical practice. However, the objective assessments of nasal airway are not well correlated with the subjective perceptions of nasal blockage. Using the assessments of questionnaire, visual analogue scale, and several objective measurements, we investigated the correlations between the data of the objective assessments and the subjective scoring to determine the parameter of choice for clinical practice. METHODS: Forty-four participants presented with nasal obstruction (33 males and 11 females) were included as nasal-obstruction group (NO), of which 15 (10 males and 5 females) were medically treated as treatment group. Eleven healthy volunteers (4 males and 7 females) were included as control group (CON). The nasal-obstruction questionnaire of Chinese Nasal Obstruction Symptom Evaluation (CNOSE) and visual analogue scale of nasal patency (VAS-NP) were used for subjective assessment of nasal obstruction. The acoustic rhinometry and rhinomanometry (RMM) were used as the objective assessments. We collected the data from both NO and CON groups before and after medical treatment. The measures and subjective scorings were compared between groups and also between before and after medical treatment. The correlations were also acquired between parameters. RESULTS: There were significant differences between NO and CON groups for the CNOSE, VAS-NP, and minimal nasal airflow (MNA) ( p ＜ 0.05, independent sample t-test). The minimal VAS-NP also moderately correlated with the MNA (r = 0.63, p ＜ 0.001, Pearson's correlation analysis). The CNOSE, MNA, and maximal nasal resistance also significantly improved after medical treatment ( p ＜ 0.05, paired sample t-test). CONCLUSION: CNOSE has a good reliability and can be used with VAS-NP to evaluate the degree of nasal obstruction clinically. MNA is a credibly objective parameter with a moderate correlation with nasal-obstruction scores and can be used to evaluate the response of medical treatment.