Aetiological Subclassification of Chronic Rhinosinusitis: A Retrospective Study

Introduction: Chronic Rhinosinusitis (CRS) is a major health problem with very high prevalence worldwide. The information available about the pathophysiology of the disease is not enough to allow development of curative therapies. Classification of CRS is based on the presence of asthma and allergy that can be useful to understand the disease aetiology and allow better patient’s care through individualised treatment plans. Aim: To classify CRS cases into subgroups depending mainly on the presence of asthma and allergy in addition to comparing the characteristics of these subgroups. Materials and Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was carried out, and the data of CRS’ patients were collected from medical records of consecutive patients attending the ENT clinic in, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Saudi Arabia. Based on collected data, CRS cases were classified into six subclasses, and patients’ characteristics such as gender and Immunoglobulin E (IgE) values in these subclasses were compared. Data entry and statistical analysis was carried out in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Mean, Standard Deviation (±SD) for numerical parametric variables and Inter-Quartile Range (IQR) for numerical non-parametric variables was calculated. Appropriate statistical tests like Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for parametric data and Kruskal Wallis test for non-parametric were applied. Results: The most prevalent subclass was Non-Asthmatic Sinusitis without Allergy (NASsA) 30 (48.4%) followed by, Asthmatic Sinusitis Without Allergy (ASsA) 13 (21.0%), Asthmatic Sinusitis With Allergy (AScA) 6 (9.7%), Non-Asthmatic Sinusitis With Allergy (NAScA) 5 (8.1%) and Allergic Fungal Sinusitis (AFS) 5 (8.1%). The highest levels of total IgE were found in patients with NAScA. It was found that nasal polyps’ presence was significantly linked to higher Computed Tomography (CT) Lund-Macky scores and MASNOT (Modified Arabic Sino-Nasal Outcome Test) scores. Conclusion: Classification of CRS based on the presence of asthma and allergy can be an informative tool for providing better care to CRS patients.