Upper airway. 3: Sinonasal involvement in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- Correspondence to Dr J R Hurst, Academic Unit of Respiratory Medicine, Royal Free Campus, UCL Medical School, London NW3 2PF, UK; j.hurst{at}medsch.ucl.ac.uk
- Received 27 April 2009
- Accepted 5 May 2009
Abstract
This review presents the evidence that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is associated with significant sinonasal symptoms, inflammation and airway obstruction. Upper airway symptoms in COPD cause impairment to quality of life. The severity of upper airway involvement relates to that present in the lower airway, suggesting that the nose may be used to model the lung in COPD. More importantly, relationships between upper and lower airway bacteria and inflammation, and the association between sinusitis and treatment failure at exacerbation raise the possibility that nasal intervention in COPD may not only improve health status but may also affect important clinical outcomes such as exacerbation frequency.
Footnotes
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Competing interests None.
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Provenance and Peer review Commissioned; not externally peer reviewed.
