[Value of nose cytology as a diagnostic aid]

Chronic and recurrent rhinitis is a very common complaint in ENT practice. For the differential diagnosis we use a battery of investigations including cytological examination of the nasal mucus. It was attempted to establish a correlation between the observable pathology of cellular elements from a nasal smear and the different types of pathologies, i.e.: specific allergic or atopic rhinopathy, nasal polyposis, coryza, and sinusitis. The cell types included in this study are: neutrophils, eosinophils, ciliated columnar cells with and without well preserved cilia and goblet cells. This study included about 500 nasal smears from about 360 patients. A group control patients without nasal complaints was included. The results demonstrated that investigation of local nose secretions is helpful in the differential diagnosis of exudative rhinopathy.