ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Rhinitis is clinically defined by obstruction, sneezing, pruritus and rhinorrhea. MATERIAL AND METHOD: There were studied 69 consecutive patients, from clinical immunology and allergy service of Hospital de Especialidades del Centro Medico Nacional Siglo XXI. RESULTS: 53 of them were women and 16 were men, all of them with ages between 15 and 55 years. They all had perennial allergic rhinitis, 50.7% of them had atopy, 47.8%, asthma as an added disease, 27.5%, nasal polyposis and 44.9%, sinusitis, in maxillary sinus 59.9%, in ethmoid 36.2% in 7.2% frontal. With septal deviation 33.3%, in 7.2% septal deviation with spur, obstruction of the osteomeatal complex in 4.3%, turbinate hypertrophy in 53.5%, polyps in 27.5% and bullous conchae in 7.2%. The diagnosis was performed by axial computerized tomography of paranasal sinuses. The chi square determined the association between structural alterations and the presence of sinusitis, with p = 0.001, with close relation between allergic rhinitis and sinusitis. CONCLUSIONS: Diagnosis and appropriate treatment proved to be very important in handling this disease.