Background: Allergic and non-allergic rhinitis, rhinosinusitis, and asthma are poorly understood diseases that affect millions of people each year. These conditions co-exist in many patients and often, onset of one is associated with exacerbation of the other. The apparent relationship of the diseases has led to the consideration of the controversial ‘one airway’ theory. The key, or link to understanding the relationship and cause of these various diseases may be found in the tissues they affect.
Tissues samples harvested from patients as a standard course of their medical treatment will be saved for future, histopathologic, and immunohistochemical evaluation. The cellular examination of tissues would be correlated with clinical, endoscopic and radiologic findings from the patients permanent medical record. The information will be consolidated and organized in a computer program in order to compare patient diagnosis, treatment, results, as well as tissue/cellular findings of the various treatment groups (rhinitis vs. rhinosinusitis vs. asthma).
Objectives: The objectives of this research is to generate a data bank of patients that present with rhinitis, rhinosinusitis, and/or asthma. Tissue samples will be saved for future evaluation to help determine: 1) how the various diseases are related, 2) how the onset and rate of progression of disease correlates to type, duration, and length of treatment, and 3) how histopathological results relate to the stage and severity of disease found in each patient.