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Latent rhinosinusitis proceeds without facial pain symptoms. Immune deficiency plays a leading role in pathogenesis of the disease latency. Substance P seems to be a universal mediator of painful irritation and inflammation. The objective of our study was to determine effectiveness of therapies in patients with latent rhinosinusitis, in terms of substance P levels. We treated 148 patients with rhinosinusitis, being free of local pains. All the patients underwent clinical and laboratory examination, including immune profile assessment, measurements of serum cytokines IL-1β, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, TNFα, IFNγ, and substance P. To correct a secondary immunodeficiency, the standard treatment of rhinosinusitis in a subgroup of the patients was accomplished by immunomodulatory drugs from the first day of therapy. The latter drugs were avoided for the rest of study group. Efficacy of treatment was evaluated by clinical signs and laboratory parameters on day 7 of the medication. Pre-treatment levels of substance P were determined in all the patients with latent clinical course and lack of pain symptoms. Low substance P levels (< 100 pg /ml) were considered as indications for immunomodulatory therapy, due to immune deficiency confirmed by the cytokine imbalance. Choice of a specific drug was dependent on immunopathogenesis, i.e., for catarrhal rhinosinusitis and deficiency of cellular immunity, we administered IFN-ES-lipint; in cases of purulent rhinosinusitis, Likopid was applied. The patients treated with immunomodulatory drugs showed improvement of immune indexes by the 7th day of treatment, along with return of substance P levels to control values typical to healthy persons. Among patients with low substance P levels and immune deficiency (without immunomodulatory treatment), the immune parameters and substance P levels did not exhibit any sufficient changes over time. Low contents of substance P (SP ≤ 100 pg /ml) in blood serum in pain-free patients with latent rhinosinusitis are indicative of immune deficiency and may serve as an indication for immune modulation therapy. Individual selection of the pathogenetically proven schedule therapy, when treating patients with latent (painless) rhinosinusitis may result into effective prevention of severe inflammation, normalization of immune response, prevention of a protracted disease course, and appropriate complications, as well as shortening of treatment terms to 8-10 days.

At present, more than 50% of the inflammatory diseases of the upper respiratory tract occur in the patients suffering from immune deficiency. In these cases, the disease is characterized by the non-typical clinical picture and occurs as a long-term latent condition with the multiple recurrences because the protective mechanisms do not work due to their functional failure. The predictors of such clinical course are the disturbances of the mechanisms of congenital and adaptive immunity, in particular, irregularities in the multicytokine receptor system. This article was designed to analyze the results of the original researches and overview the literature publications pertaining to the problem of interest. It was shown that the results of the evaluation of the role of cytokines in the pathogenesis of inflammatory diseases of the upper respiratory tract create good prospects for their further application for the purpose of cytokine/anti-cytokine therapy. Conclusion: the study of the cytokine profile provides information about the functional activity of different types of immune cells, the severity of the inflammatory process and its transition to the systemic level, and the prediction of the relationship between the processes of activation of Th-1 and Th-2 helpers, which is of paramount importance for the differential diagnostics of various inflammatory and immunopathological events in the upper respiratory tract.

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The objective of the present work was to evaluate the diagnostic significance of the measurement of the antistreptolysin O (ASLO) titers in the children presenting with chronic tonsillitis for determining the indications for tonsillectomy. The study included 54 patients at the age varying from 4 to 17 years who had undergone bilateral tonsillectomy for the treatment of chronic tonsillitis. The diagnosis was confirmed by the results of the histological study of the removed amygdalae. Prior to surgery, all the patients had been subjected to the bacteriological investigation of the smears taken from the surface of the palatal tonsils. The titers of antistreptolysin O in the serum were determined with the use of the kinetic nephelometric technique before, 6 and 12 months after the surgical intervention. The results of the measurements were treated using the Statzilla software package (version 3.2, R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria). Streptococcus pyogenes (group A) was identified only in 7 (13%) patients. The initially enhanced content of ASLO ranging from 273 to 1880 IU/ml was documented in 42 (77.7%) of the 54 patients. Twelve patients had the ASLO titers within the normal limits (from 13 to 124 IU/ml). The removal of palatal tonsils resulted in a significant decrease of the ASLO titers in the patients who had presented with the initially enhanced content of antistreptolysin O (p < 0.05); nevertheless, their ASLO titers remained higher than the normal values in 69% and 82% of the patients examined within 6 and 12 months after the surgical intervention, respectively. The patients who had exhibited the high levels of antistreptolysin O during the preoperative period did not experience normalization of this parameter after surgery. It is concluded, taking into account the absence of correlation between the enhancement of serum antistreptolysin O titers and the presence of group A beta-chemolytic Streptococci (BCSA), that the result of the measurement of ASLO titers can not be considered as a valid indication for tonsillectomy in the children.

Purpose: to determine the role of a pain symptom in the diagnosis of rhinosinusitis on the background of immune deficiency. 240 patients with rhinosinusitis without pain symptom were divided into 3 groups: group 1 - patients with acute viral rhinosinusitis (AVRS), group 2 - patients with acute bacterial sinusitis (ABRS), group 3 (n = 32) - control. All patients underwent a complete otorhinolaryngological examination, assessment of the pain symptom, an immunogram, the level of SP in the blood serum. At SP > 100 pg/ml in group 1, the change in indicators was typical for viral infection, in group 2, for bacterial infection. With an SP < 100 pg/ml, the cytokine balance is predominantly biased towards anti-inflammatory cytokines, and the direction of differentiation of Th-1/Th-2 lymphocytes towards the Th-2 pathway, which is manifested by immune deficiency, which leads to severe or prolonged course of the disease, which may indicate impaired neuro-immune interactions.

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Introduction. Chronic rhinosinusitis with polyps and asthma are comorbid, mutually aggravating, and difficult to treat diseases. The correlation between the severity of chronic rhinosinusitis with polyps and eosinophilic asthma, the similarity of the endotypes of these diseases and the success of humanized monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of severe asthma explain the interest in studying the possibility of using this group of drugs in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with polyps. Aim. The aim of the study was to assess changes in the severity of symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis in patients with comorbid asthma against the background of reslizumab treatment. We evaluated clinical effect of treatment, dynamics of subjective and objective characteristics of symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis and asthma, indices of total and local eosinophilia. Material and methods. The study involved 18 patients with severe eosinophilic asthma selected for treatment with reslizumab. Study protocol: The first examination, performed before starting reslizumab treatment, included assessment of clinical symptoms using the standardized Sino-nasal Outcome Test-22 (SNOT-22) and Asthma Control Test (ACT) questionnaires, endoscopic nasal cavity examination, spiral computed tomography of the paranasal sinuses, rhino cytogram, determination of eosinophils and eosinophilic cationic protein (ECP) in blood, allergological examination using ImmunoCAP method, and external respiratory function study. The results of treatment were evaluated after 6 injections of reslizumab at the dose of 3 mg/kg weight once every 4 weeks. The obtained data were processed using Statistica 12.0 program (StatSoft, USA). The differences were considered statistically significant at p<0,05. Results and discussion. When assessing the outcomes of treatment after 6 injections of reslizumab, both a marked improvement in asthma control (Asthma Control Test – increase from 7,0 [6–8] to 22,0 [16–22]) and a decrease in nasal symptoms (SNOT-22 was 78,0 [62–81] and 39,0 [29–49], respectively) were noted. There was a significant improvement in the Lund-Mackay spiral computed tomography data of the paranasal sinuses (16,0 [11–19] and 7,0 [5–12], respectively), spirometry values, and a decrease in eosinophils and eosinophilic cationic protein content in the blood. In the presence of polyposis rhinosinusitis in patients with severe eosinophilic asthma, a more pronounced effect of reslizumab on the attenuation of asthma symptoms was obtained comparing to patients without polyps. Conclusions. Treatment with reslizumab in patients with eosinophilic asthma and concomitant chronic rhinosinusitis with polyps and eosinophilic chronic rhinosinusitis leads not only to better control of asthma symptoms but also to a significant regression of nasal symptoms.