Background: In order to evaluate the efficacy of intranasal mometasone furoate in patients with non-allergic rhinitis (NAR), a real-life, observational, prospective study is performed.
Methods: Thirty-one patients (age 18-64 years) receive intranasal (mometasone furoate, 200 µg b.i.d. for 15 consecutive days per month for 6 consecutive months), plus isotonic nasal saline. The cytologic pattern of local inflammation, nasal airflow, through peak nasal inspiratory flow (PNIF), quality of life (QoL), through the rhinitis quality of life questionnaire (RQLQ), the sinonasal outcome test (SNOT-22), the short-form 36-item health survey (SF-36v2), and the combined symptom medication score (CSMS), and, finally, olfactory function, through Sniffin' sticks-16 identification test (SSIT-16), are evaluated at baseline and after treatment.
Results: NARNE is the most frequent cytological pattern (48% of the total sample). The therapeutic response shows improvement in olfactory function and QoL.
Conclusions: The results of this study confirm that intranasal mometasone furoate is an effective treatment for patients with NAR.
Keywords: fiberoptic nasal endoscopy; intranasal corticosteroid; mometasone furoate; nasal cytology; non-allergic rhinitis; non-allergic rhinitis with eosinophils (NARES); olfactory function; quality of life; the rhinitis quality of life questionnaire (RQLQ).