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Thorax 2009;64:999-1004 doi:10.1136/thx.2008.112862
  • Review series

Upper airway · 1: Allergic rhinitis and asthma: united disease through epithelial cells

  1. A Bourdin1,
  2. D Gras2,
  3. I Vachier1,
  4. P Chanez2
  1. 1
    Department of Respiratory Disease, CHU Arnaud de Villeneuve, Montpellier, France
  2. 2
    Service de Pneumo-Allergologie et Laboratoire d’Immunologie, INSERM U 600, Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France
  1. Correspondence to Professor P Chanez, Université de la Méditerranée, AP-HM, 270 Boulevard de Sainte-Marguerite, F-13009 Marseille, France; pascal.chanez{at}univmed.fr
  • Received 11 May 2009
  • Accepted 14 June 2009

Abstract

The relationship between allergic rhinitis and asthma is now established, and most of the clinical, epidemiological and biological data recommend integrated management. Epithelial cells represent the first barrier of the upper and lower respiratory tracts and thus are logical targets for a comprehensive integrated therapeutic approach. This review discusses rhinosinusitis as a co-morbid condition, a precipitating or triggering condition, and an epiphenomenon as an integrated part of the disease. A better understanding and a more pragmatic method of diagnosis and management is needed using cost-effective long-term strategies.

Footnotes

  • See Editorial, p 923

  • Competing interests None.

  • Provenance and Peer review Commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.

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