S284 – Impact of Asthma and Atopy on Smell in Nasal Polyposis

Abstract

Objectives Nasal polyposis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the nose and paranasal sinuses mucosa that has negative impact on sense of smell. The aim of this study was: 1) to evaluate the sense of smell in patients with severe nasal polyposis; and 2) to evaluate the role of asthma and atopy on the sense of smell. Methods We studied 222 patients with severe nasal polyposis (GIII Lildholt) with mean age of 49±14 years. Smell test of BAST-24 has been used for I (I-CN) and V (V-CN) cranial nerves analysing detection, identification, and forced choice. The results were compared with healthy subjects (n=120). Results 54% were asthmatics and 30% had atopy (positive prick test). All of smell test characteristics were worse than healthy subjects (p<0.05) for: detection (I-CN=37% vs 99%; V-CN=34% vs 98%), identification (I-CN=15% vs 55%; V-CN= 17% vs 59%), and forced choice (I-CN= 18% vs 77%; V-CN= 16% vs 43%). Asthmatics had poorer sense of smell (p<0.05) than non-asthmatics: detection (I-CN=27% vs 48%; V-CN=27% vs 41%), identification (I-CN=11% vs 19%) and forced choice (I-CN= 13% vs 24%). There were no significant differences between aspirin-tolerant and aspirin-sensitive asthmatics or between patients with and without atopy. Conclusions These results demonstrated that patients with severe nasal polyposis have an important diminution of sense of smell (detection, identification, and forced choice) and that asthma but not atopy has a negative impact on sense of smell.