Noninvasive measurement of nasal NO and fractional exhaled NO in healthy people and patients with allergic rhinitis

Abstract

To measure the nasal nitric oxide (NNO) and fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FENO) in healthy people and patients with allergic rhinitis (AR), and to discuss the clinical significance of the results. Ninety-six healthy volunteers and 51 patients with moderate-severe persistent AR, but without asthma, were enrolled. NNO and FENO concentrations were measured noninvasively by using of NIOX MINO (Aerocrine AB, Solna, Sweden).SPSS 13.0 software was used to analyze the data. The concentration of NNO in healthy people was 245.0 [189.8;331.3] ppb (median [25th percentile; 75th percentile], the followings were same as). The concentration of FENO was 14.0 [10.0; 18.0] ppb. The concentration of NNO in patients with AR was 304.0[179.5; 397.5]ppb. The concentration of FENO was 21.0 [16.0; 40.5] ppb. The concentration of NNO in the AR patients was higher than that in the healthy persons, but the difference did not reach statistical significance (Z = 1.349, P = 0.177).On the other hand, FENO concentrations were significantly increased in patients compared with concentrations in healthy persons (Z = 5.555, P = 0.000). FENO concentrations of patients with moderate-severe persistent AR are increased significantly even though the patients do not have typical symptoms of asthma. This finding suggests that AR patients should be treated actively in order to prevent asthma from developing in them.