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Updated: Jun 12, 2026
Absorption of Nasal and Bronchial Fluids: Precision Sampling of the Human Respiratory Mucosa and Laboratory Processing of Samples
Published on: January 21, 2018
Observational study comparing intranasal mometasone furoate with oral antihistamines for rhinitis and asthma
David Price1, Linda Kemp, Erika Sims
1Academic Centre of Primary Care, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, UK. david@respiratoryresearch.org
Aims:
Retrospective database study comparing upper and lower airway-related outcomes for patients with rhinitis and co-morbid asthma receiving mometasone furoate--an intranasal corticosteroid with low systemic bioavailability--or an oral antihistamine.
Methods:
395 patients prescribed intranasal mometasone were matched on 10 demographic and respiratory-related criteria in a 1:2 ratio to 790 patients prescribed oral antihistamine. Asthma and rhinitis control were assessed over one year using predefined composite proxy measures.
Results:
Asthma control was achieved by 309/395 (78.2%) versus 580/790 (73.4%; p=0.071) patients in the mometasone and antihistamine cohorts, respectively. Rhinitis control was achieved by 293 (74.2%) versus 539 (68.2%; p=0.035), respectively. The adjusted odds ratios for antihistamines, relative to mometasone, were 0.71 (95% CI, 0.52-0.98) for achieving asthma control and 0.74 (95% CI, 0.56-0.97) for achieving rhinitis control.
Conclusions:
Patients with rhinitis and co-morbid asthma initiating rhinitis therapy achieved significantly better upper as well as lower airway outcomes with intranasal mometasone than with oral antihistamine.
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