Prognosis of Allergic Rhinitis

Prognosis

The disease can’t yet be completely cured, but through standardized comprehensive prevention and treatment, the patient's various symptoms can be well controlled and the quality of life can be significantly improved. Targeted health education should be carried out for patients, and disease management and follow-up visits should be strengthened.

What are the possible complications of allergic rhinitis?

Complications directly related to allergic rhinitis include the following diseases.

Secretory Otitis Media

It is a non-suppurative inflammatory disease. Symptoms include ear fullness, tinnitus, and hearing loss, which may be mild or severe as the nasal symptoms change, and may be related to exposure to allergens. Allergic rhinitis is one of the risk factors that may induce secretory otitis media in children.

Sleep Disordered Breathing Syndrome

Due to severe nasal congestion, the minute ventilation volume of the respiratory tract during sleep is significantly reduced, and the quality of sleep is reduced.

Chronic Sinusitis

Allergic inflammation is a major cause of chronic sinusitis. The prevalence of chronic sinusitis was 30% in patients with allergic rhinitis and 23% in patients with asthma, compared with only 6% and 7% in subjects without allergic rhinitis or asthma.

Associated Diseases

Since the nasal mucosa is continuous with the mucosa in other parts of the respiratory tract, and both belong to the mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue of the immune system, when allergic inflammation occurs in the nasal mucosa, the inflammatory mediators and cytokines produced can act on other parts of the respiratory tract through different pathways.

In recent years, some people believe that allergic rhinitis and asthma are the same type of disease, and they belong to "systemic respiratory mucosal diseases" or "complete airway diseases" including asthma.

Bronchial Asthma

Allergic rhinitis is an independent risk factor for asthma attacks, and 40% of patients with allergic rhinitis will develop asthma. Allergic rhinitis and bronchial asthma have many similarities in terms of epidemics and pathological changes. Bronchial asthma can occur at the same time as allergic rhinitis, but it mostly occurs after rhinitis, and the symptoms of rhinitis are often significantly relieved after the onset. Sometimes it only manifests as chest tightness and cough, which is another type of asthma.

Allergic Pharyngitis

Symptoms include itchy throat and cough, and may also have mild hoarseness.

Allergic Conjunctivitis

When patients with allergic rhinitis are accompanied by allergic conjunctivitis, they may have symptoms such as eye itching, tearing, and red eyes. Especially in patients with seasonal allergic rhinitis, the incidence of allergic conjunctivitis can be as high as 85%. Surveys show that the incidence rate of eye symptoms in patients with allergic inflammation is 32% to 59%. The diagnosis of allergic conjunctivitis is not difficult, but care should be taken to differentiate it from other common conjunctival lesions.

Upper Respiratory Tract Cough Syndrome

Allergic rhinitis and sinusitis are common causes of chronic cough in children and adults. Nasal secretions reflux from the nose and throat, causing direct or indirect irritation and causing coughing. A pilot study of 393 children with a chief complaint of cough showed that 45.8% had allergic rhinitis. A multicenter survey on the causes of chronic cough in China found that upper respiratory tract cough syndrome was most frequently associated with allergic rhinitis (63.4%).