[Immune complex detection in nasal mucosa of patients with chronic and permanent nasal obstruction]

Thirty patients with rhinologic problems and in which the main symptom was "Permanent Nasal Blockade" were studied. We found that they presented a "Permanent and Total Chronic Nasal Blockade"-an entity defined by us as a permanent chronic obstruction of the nasal cavities that would be the clinical and anatomopathologic expression and the immunological terminal phase of "Chronic Rhinitis", leading to Chronic Respiratory Nasal Insufficiency. The main symptoms of these "buccal breathers" were: throat dryness, night snores, nasal resonance of the voice, mechanic and secondary disturbances derived from mouth breathing, such as pharingitis, laryngitis, bronchitis, bronchial asthma and a tendency towards emphysema; dystrophia of the facial bones, disminution of the intellectual capacity, irritability, lack of concentration; disturbances of the circulatory function (alterations of the cardiac rhythm and of the blood pressure). The patients were adolescents and young adults in which allergic and infectious causes dominated the etiology, showed by family allergic and personal atopic antecedents, positive intradermic tests for aeroallergenes and bacteria and corroborated by increase of immunoglobulin E and of blood eosinophiles. The methods of diagnosis used to verify the "Permanent and Total Chronic Nasal Blockade" were: X-rays, lineal tomography; rhinomanometry and rhinofibrolaringoscopy. The anatomopathologic results obtained by nasal biopsy showed a lymphomonocitary infiltrate around arterioles and venules: signs of vasculitis. All this led us to search for immunocomplexes. The presence of positive immunocomplexes surrounding the vessels contributed to a more precise focusing of the physiopathology, diagnosis and treatment of "Permanent and Total Chronic Nasal Blockade".