BLOOD AND LOCAL EOSINOPHILIA IN CRSwNP: PREVALENCE AND CORRELATION WITH SEVERITY OF DISEASE| ACTA Otorhinolaryngologica Italica

Abstract

Objective. The aim of this manuscript was to evaluate the clinical meaning of absolute eosinophil blood count and eosinophil count at nasal cytology in the context of real-life clinical practice and to verify if they correlate with the severity of the disease in CRSwNP patients.

Methods. We enrolled 425 CRSwNP patients followed between January 2015 and April 2023 at the A. Gemelli Hospital Foundation-IRCCS, Rome, Italy. We gathered data on blood and local eosinophil count correlating results with clinical features. All patients underwent endoscopy, VAS for main symptoms, SNOT-22.

Results. We observed significantly higher mean levels of eosinophils in the serum and at nasal cytology in CRSwNP patients with asthma, NSAID-ERD and allergy. Patients with nasal eosinophil count >5 eosinophils/hpf had a significant higher median specific VAS for nasal symptoms, and a significant higher SNOT 22 scores.

Conclusions. We demonstrated that blood eosinophil count and nasal cytology may represent useful tools in routine clinical practice to define type-2 inflammation and their levels are usually higher in patients with comorbidities. We also showed that local eosinophil count is correlated to high severity of symptoms and high burden on quality of life.