Allergic Rhinitis, Intranasal, Fluticasone, Corticosteroid, Normal Saline, Efficacy
BACKGROUND Allergic rhinitis is a fairly common condition. A large number of patients of allergic rhinitis are usually found in daily ENT practice. Symptoms of allergic rhinitis are still a major problem, which can affect day to day activities of an individual. Intranasal corticosteroid has potent anti-inflammatory actions and is believed to exert its beneficial effects by inhibiting several types of cells and chemicals involved in immune and inflammatory responses. Present study determines the efficacy of intra nasal corticosteroid over placebo in patients of allergic rhinitis. METHODS A single blinded non-randomised trial was conducted among patients attending allergy clinic of ENT out-patient department of a Tertiary Medical College & Hospital of West Bengal, India from March 2008 to May 2008. Two groups of patients were selected from the total sample size of 100 patients by alternate sampling technique. One group (Gr-F) was treated by intranasal corticosteroid (fluticasone nasal spray) and the other group (Gr-P) by placebo (normal saline aqueous spray) for 6 consecutive weeks. Patients were asked about their subjective feeling of symptoms and relevant examinations & investigations were carried out. Improvements following treatment were judged by total nasal symptoms scoring. Collected data were analysed using SPSS version 20. McNemar’s test was carried out on paired nominal data and p value of < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. RESULTS The present study revealed that 69 % male and 31 % female were suffering from allergic rhinitis. Most common symptom was nasal discharge followed by sneezing and nasal obstruction. 41 % had family history of allergic rhinitis. It was seen that inflamed nasal mucosa reverts back to normal in 35 % in fluticasone group after 6 weeks of treatment. Study also showed the decrease of blood eosinophil count in 60 % of patients in fluticasone group. 92 % of patients in the fluticasone group revealed that they improved after taking the drug, whereas 88 % of patients in placebo group did not improve after taking spray. CONCLUSIONS It can be concluded from the present study that intra nasal corticosteroid spray is more effective than placebo for treatment of allergic rhinitis.
