Chronic Rhinosinusitis a Comorbidity in Patients with Asthma and Bronchiectasis

New research into chronic rhinosinusitis found that the condition was a comorbidity for patients with asthma and bronchiectasis.

The new data will be presented in full during the 2022 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology (AAAAI).

Investigators led by Margaret S. Kim, MD, Allergy and Immunology at Northwestern Medicine, Chicago, reviewed electronic medical records of patients with asthma and comorbid chronic rhinosinusitis and/or bronchiectasis between 1988 and 2021.

Codes from the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) were used to identify asthma and chronic rhinosinusitis, while chest computed tomography (CT) scans were used to define bronchiectasis.

Kim and colleagues then examined the use of oral corticosteroids, antibiotic courses, and emergency room visits or hospitalizations associated with all 3 conditions and found that asthma patients with both chronic rhinosinusitis and bronchiectasis had a higher odds ration for all of the factors examined.

Of a total of 5038 patients with asthma who had a chest CT were identified, 19% had bronchiectasis, 39% had chronic rhinosinusitis, and 9.8% had both.

Patients with asthma and bronchiectasis were more likely to have chronic rhinosinusitis than patients without bronchiectasis (51% and 36%, respectively).

Additionally, asthmatics with both conditions had a higher odds rates of oral corticosteroids use of 2.3, as well as a 3.0 higher odd of antibiotics use, and a 1.6 higher odd of hospitalization or emergency department visit.

Kim and colleagues noted that these results persisted after controlling for age, sex, and race.

“By identifying this important comorbidity for which to screen, healthcare professionals can take proactive steps to improve patient care in these patients,” the team wrote.