Assessment of taste functions in allergic rhinitis patients undergoing allergen-specific immunotherapy.


Bozkurt G., Elhassan H. A., Soezen E., Soytas P., Erol Z. N., Guevenc M., ...Daha Fazla

European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, cilt.276, sa.2, ss.439-445, 2019 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

Özet

BackgroundWe evaluated taste functions of patients with perennial allergic rhinitis (AR) before and after allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT).MethodsThe study was designed as a prospective clinical study in our tertiary care hospital. Patients (n=21) who were diagnosed with perennial AR on the basis of physical examination, skin prick test of at least 3* for HDM allergen and treated with AIT were enrolled in this study. A control group (n=21) was selected from patients who were given intranasal steroids (INS) for perennial AR. Both groups had self-reported hyposmia and subjective loss of the sense of taste before treatment. Taste strips (Burghart, Wedel, Germany) were used for the taste identification scores before and after 6months treatment.ResultsA total of 42 subjects were included, with a mean age of 24.17.9years (range 15-43years). Overall, the AIT group showed more of an improvement of taste function, observed in the total average test scores, compared to the INS group (p<0.05), but no change was detected between the groups before treatment. No difference was found for the bitter taste scores between the study groups (p=0.053).Conclusion Subcutaneous allergen immunotherapy resulted in more of an improvement in taste function than intranasal steroids. Further studies are needed.