Symptoms of chronic and allergic rhinitis and occurrence of nasal secretion granulocytes in university students, school children and infants.

The prevalence of chronic and allergic rhinitis was studied in an unselected population sample consisting of 315 university students and 319 school children. History was taken by questionnaire, nasal appearance was examined by rhinoscopy, and a nasal smear was studied in all subjects. For comparison, nasal smears were also collected from 60 normal infants. Allergic rhinitis complaints were reported by 28% of the students and by 13% of the school children, with no significant difference in sex distribution. The cytological examination revealed secretion eosinophilia in 20% of the students, 28% of the school children, and 22% of the infants. Secretion eosinophilia correlated significantly with allergic rhinitis history, and with nasal mucosal swelling and nasal secretion seen on rhinoscopy. Nasal secretion neutrophilia, which occurred in 47% of the students, 79% of the school children and 97% of the infants, seemed to have an adverse effect on the reliability of secretion eosinophilia as an indicator of active nasal allergy. Possible reasons for the rising prevalence rates of allergic rhinitis are discussed.