Abstract
From 1971 to 1980, 1700 patients were treated for allergic rhinitis at Sapporo Medical College. The number of patients increased 2.9 times during this period. The increase occurred in all ages and both sexes nearly equally. Intracutaneous tests to house dust or mites were positive in 60% of patients throughout the observation period. Nasal allergen challenge tests were positive in 77.9%, 64.4%, 60.3%, 59.1% and 36.1% of patients to mugwort, mites, timothy grass, house dust and candida, respectively.
Eosinophilia was found in nasal smears in 64% of all patients, and peripheral blood eosinophilia (>7% eosinophils) in 20.3%. X-rays showed that 49.2% of all patients had abnormal paranasal sinuses. Nasal symptoms appeared by age 5 in 30.7% of male patients and 10.0% of female patients, by age 10 in 57.5% of male patients, and by age 25 in 54.3% of female patients.
