Allergic rhinitis in the pregnant women

Abstract

The objective of the present work was to elucidate the specific features of the clinical picture of allergic rhinitis in the pregnant women. The study included 156 pregnant women presenting with the persisting form of the disease and 63 patients having its intermitting form. The character of the endoscopic manifestations of rhinitis, chronic tonsillitis, and gastroesophageal reflux was evaluated with the use of a scoring system. The progressive development of the clinical symptoms of allergic rhinitis during pregnancy related neither to the contacts with allergens nor to the discontinuation of pharmacotherapy was documented in 33 and 23% of the patients presenting with the persistent and intermitting forms of the disease, respectively. The symptoms of rhinitis in the pregnant women may be influenced by the presence of gastroesophageal reflux (the endoscopic evidence of this condition was documented in 84.6% of the examined patients with persisting form of the disease and in 40.3% of those having intermitting form) and chronic tonsillitis (purulent contents in the palatine tonsil lacunes were found in 46.8 and 40.3% of the women presenting with the persisting and intermitting forms of allergic rhinitis respectively). In 42% of the cases, the cause behind the negative dynamics or the absence of any dynamics during the treatment of allergic rhinitis was the withdrawal of the prescribed pharmacotherapy by the patients themselves. This observation gives evidence of the importance of explaining to the pregnant women suffering from allergic rhinitis the necessity of compliance with the prescribed treatment modalities in order to reduce the probability of development of complications of this condition.