Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Otorhinolaryngol. May 28, 2015; 5(2): 44-52
Published online May 28, 2015. doi: 10.5319/wjo.v5.i2.44
Relationship between chronic rhinosinusitis and lower airway diseases: An extensive review
Shin Kariya, Mitsuhiro Okano, Kazunori Nishizaki
Shin Kariya, Mitsuhiro Okano, Kazunori Nishizaki, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama 700-8558, Japan
Author contributions: All the authors contributed to this paper.
Supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research), No. 25462642.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Shin Kariya, MD, PhD, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2-5-1 Shikata-cho, Kita-ku, Okayama 700-8558, Japan. skariya@cc.okayama-u.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-86-2357307 Fax: +81-86-2357308
Received: October 4, 2014
Peer-review started: October 5, 2014
First decision: November 14, 2014
Revised: December 4, 2014
Accepted: March 4, 2015
Article in press: March 5, 2015
Published online: May 28, 2015
Processing time: 229 Days and 3.4 Hours
Abstract

Significant links between allergic rhinitis and asthma have been reported, and the united airway disease hypothesis is supported by numerous findings in epidemiologic, physiologic, pathologic, and immunologic studies. The impact of allergic rhinitis on asthma has been established. On the other hand, the relationship between chronic rhinosinusitis and lung diseases has been under investigation. Chronic rhinosinusitis is a common disease, and the high prevalence of chronic rhinosinusitis in some kinds of lung diseases has been reported. Recent studies suggest that the treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis has beneficial effects in the management of asthma. Here, we present an overview of the current research on the relationship between chronic rhinosinusitis and lower airway diseases including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis, diffuse panbronchiolitis, primary ciliary dyskinesia, idiopathic bronchiectasis, and allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis.

Keywords: Chronic rhinosinusitis; Sinusitis; Asthma; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Cystic fibrosis; Diffuse panbronchiolitis; Primary ciliary dyskinesia; Idiopathic bronchiectasis; Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis

Core tip: Chronic rhinosinusitis is a persisting inflammatory condition of the paranasal sinus. A close relationship between chronic rhinosinusitis and lower airway diseases has been suggested. The purpose of this review is to summarize recent findings on the correlation between chronic rhinosinusitis and lung diseases.