Chronic rhinitis is defined as an inflammation of the nasal epithelium, and is characterized by the presence of two or more specific nasal symptoms including obstruction, rhinorrhea, sneezing, and/or itching for at least 12 weeks. In childhood, this clinical entity is very common and carries a significant socioeconomic burden. The impact on the physical, social, and psychological well-being of family cannot be underestimated. Rhinitis is an umbrella term which includes different phenotypes of rhinitis with distinct underlying pathophysiologic mechanisms. In most cases the diagnosis of rhinitis is rather straightforward; however, sometimes when based on clinical symptomatology, characterization may be challenging. Herein, we provide guidance for getting all the data needed for the differential diagnosis of rhinitis based on medical history and clinical examination.

We previously reported on a hands-on seminar on basic research organized at the rd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Rhinologic Society Osaka, Japan in order to not only improve individual skills and knowledge but also enhance interaction and collaboration between researchers. A questionnaire survey was also conducted following this seminar. Moreover, we investigated the shift in the number of basic oral and poster presentations at the annual meetings of the Japanese Rhinologic Society from to. In this previous report, % of participants agreed that the seminar was useful and most hoped to continue such seminars in the future. The percentage of basic oral and poster presentations at the meeting decreased to % compared with % at the meeting. Thus, to further develop this seminar on basic research, we again organized at the th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Rhinologic Society Hiroshima, Japan a second hands-on seminar on basic research for clinicians, focusing on how to prepare good frozen sections, obtain good DNA and RNA, and perform reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction RT-PCR. Here, we present an outline of this second seminar and discuss detailed procedures for performing Kawamoto's film method, which is a new technique with adhesive film for the preparation of multipurpose fresh-frozen sections from hard tissues, and for collecting DNA and RNA from nasal tissue. Additionally, we present the results of a questionnaire survey and the percentage of basic oral and poster presentations in this seminar as last year, as well as discuss perspective of this trial.

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I II The Japanese Rhinologic Society has held "Hands-on Seminar on Basic Research for Clinicians" led by the Society since. These seminars are planned with the aim of raising the motivation and research skills of clinical otorhinolaryngologists toward basic research, and in turn to encourage inter-disciplinary collaboration through research with universities. The fifth seminar was held at the th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Rhinologic Society Asahikawa including four different topics, isolation of single cells from nasal samples, ELISA, Western blot, and CRISPER-Cas. Based on the questionnaire, the participants had a high need and satisfaction of these research seminars. Because this seminar is a great opportunity for rhinologists to obtain an idea to expand the avenue of basic understanding of rhinologic disorders, this seminar should be continued as far as there is a demand.

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