title: Significance of Blood Eosinophil Count in Patients with Chronic Rhinosinusitis with Nasal Polyposis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chronic Rhino Sinusitis (CRS) is one of the most prevalent chronic illnesses across the globe, affecting persons of all ages. It is an inflammatory process that involves the paranasal sinuses with symptoms lasting longer than 12 weeks.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To establish the significance of blood eosinophil (count) levels in CRS with nasal polyps and to compare blood eosinophil count with eosinophil count in the histopathology specimens of the polyps.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a retrospective study done to review the medical records of 63 patients who underwent endoscopic sinus surgery for CRS with Nasal polyps. The patients were divided into two groups, 1 and 2 based on the number of patients suffering from non eosinophilic rhino sinusitis (Group 1) and those from eosinophlic rhino sinusitis (Group 2). The clinical examination findings, nasal endoscopy observations and MDCT-Paranasal sinuses were notified. Also, the mean Eosinophil Count (EC), Absolute Eosinophil Count (AEC), and Histopathology Eosinophil Count (HPE) was compared between two groups. This was aided by CT Scan Lund Mackay Scores (LMS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the patients from Group 1, the male to female ratio was found to be 1.14:1 with 53.3% males and in Group 2 the same were noted as 1.75:1 and 63.6% respectively and found a male preponderance. With regard to symptomatology, significantly higher number of patients in the Group 2 suffered from nasal block (97% vs. 46.7%; p<0.001), nasal obstruction (90.9% vs. 46.7%; p<0.001), nasal discharge (81.8% vs. 56.7%; p=0.030), hyposmia (97% vs. 30%; p<0.001) and asthma (69.7% vs. 3.3%; p<0.001). However, facial pain (66.7% vs. 81.8%; p=0.168) and para nasal sinus tenderness (53.3% vs. 54.6%; p=0.923) were comparable in Groups 1 and 2. Mean EC, AEC and HPE were significantly high in Group 2 compared to Group 1.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study demonstrated that there was a significant correlation between tissue and blood eosinophil counts with increased severity of symptoms in patients with Eosinophilic CRS with nasal polyps in the Indian population.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Associate, Department of ENT, SUT Hospital , Pattom, Trivandrum, Kerala, India .
authors.forename: Ammu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sreeparvathi
authors.affiliation: Additional Professor, Department of Anatomy, Trivandrum Government Medical College , Trivandrum, Kerala, India .
authors.forename: Lathi Kumari
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Kalyanikuttyamma
authors.affiliation: Professor and Head, Department of ENT, Amrita Institute of Medical Science , Amrita Viswa Vidyapeetham, Kochi, Kerala, India .
authors.forename: Madhumita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Sree Mookambika Institute of Dental Sciences , Kulasekharam, Tamil Nadu, India .
authors.forename: Nandagopan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sreekumar
authors.affiliation: Consultant ENT Surgeon, Department of ENT, Indoamerican Hospital , Vaikom, Kerala, India .
authors.forename: Narendrakumar
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Veerasigamani
keywords: Absolute eosinophil count; Eosinophilia; Lund mackay scores; Sinonasal polyp