Correlations between subjective sensation of nasal patency and rhinomanometry in both unilateral and total nasal assessment.

The correlation between rhinomanometry and subjective sensation of nasal obstruction was studied. Patients assessed their nasal airway patency using a visual analogue scale (VAS). The VAS results and rhinomanometry correlated better when unilateral nasal obstruction was evaluated compared to total nasal evaluation. When rhinomanometric data were divided into four clinically relevant grades of obstruction (very patent, normal, obstructed and very obstructed) and the quartiles of the VAS results were compared to these, the agreement was good or fairly good in 75-85% of cases. A similar result was also encountered when, in an experimental study, 30 individuals were asked to breathe through four artificial nose models with a varying inner diameter of 9-3 mm. Again, most subjects assessed these models logically, but in 11% of the cases the subject assessed the narrowest tube as patent or the widest tube as very obstructed. Our results prove the necessity of having some sort of objective method to evaluate nasal patency; if we rely only on the patient's sensation, we may get a misleading picture of his nasal function.