June 2019

Local allergic rhinitis (LAR) has been reported in the field of otolaryngology; however, the concept of local allergic conjunctivitis (LAC) has not been widely studied in the ophthalmologic community. We routinely examined total IgE levels in tear fluids (t-tIgE) and antigen-specific IgE levels in serum (s-sIgE) in patients with suspected allergic conjunctivitis, on the basis of Japanese guidelines for allergic conjunctival diseases. There are several cases in which the results of t-tIgE and s-sIgE testing are divergent. We suggest that these divergent cases correspond to LAR in otolaryngology.

Spanish investigators developed and validated a national version of the rhinitis control assessment test. This test is widely used to evaluate control of patients with allergic rhinitis.

They translated and adapted the original questionnaire to Spain and prospectively evaluated its properties in regard to its validity, reliability, responsiveness, size effect, minimal important difference and cut point score.

A total of 252 allergic rhinitis patients were included. Investigators found significant and strong correlations between the Spanish rhinitis control assessment test and the total nasal symptom score and the visual analogue scale. This assessment test managed to distinguish between patients with different severity or duration of allergic rhinitis and it also linearly correlated with the improvement of allergic rhinitis.

In conclusion, the adaptation to Spanish-speaking allergic rhinitis patients was successful and can be effectively used to measure control of allergic rhinitis symptoms.