title: Influence of passive humidification on nasal conditioning.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Passive humidifiers (PH) have been beneficial to upper and lower airway humidity, especially in patients who are in a long-time ventilated intensive care unit. The goal of this pilot study was to provide nasal conditioning data and measure the benefit of a nasal PH to spontaneously breathing, conscious subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eleven healthy volunteers had to wear a PH for 1 hour, which was introduced into both nasal vestibules. The PH had a heat and moisture restoring body of polyurethane foam with an open-pore structure. Before and after application of the nasal PH, nasal conditioning was measured and nasal symptoms were assessed by the participants.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ten minutes after removal of the PH a significant increase was observed for the scores for nasal patency and nasal humidity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We hypothesize that the nasal PH could provide a valuable contribution to the supportive therapy of diseases that accompany nasal mucosal dryness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany. tilman.keck@uniklinik-ulm.de
authors.forename: Tilman
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Keck
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dürr
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Leiacker
authors.forename: Ajnacska
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rozsasi
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rettinger
authors.forename: Timo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rother
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006813:Humidity; D008297:Male; D008397:Masks; D009297:Nasal Mucosa / Q000502:physiology*; D009666:Nose; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012121:Respiration, Artificial / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D017694:Rewarming / Q000295:instrumentation; D013696:Temperature; D012122:Ventilators, Mechanical