Influence of Age and Gender on Nasal Airway Patency as Measured by Active Anterior Rhinomanometry and Acoustic Rhinometry

Abstract

In this study, we aimed to investigate the influences of age and gender on nasal airway patency, as measured by both active anterior rhinomanometry (AAR) and acoustic rhinometry (AR). The nasal airway patency of healthy subjects was evaluated using AAR and AR. In AAR, the subjects generated airflow actively through inspiration and expiration in repetitions of 10, while nasal patency was measured at an inspiratory and expiratory reference pressure of 75 Pa. In AR, we assessed the geometry of the nasal cavity through the analysis of sound waves reflected from the nasal cavities in order to measure both cross-sectional areas and nasal volumes. The subjects were divided by gender, with all males and females then grouped by ages of 20–39 years, 40–59 years and ≥60 years. There were 40 subjects in each group. The mean resistance measured by AAR and the cross-sectional areas and nasal volumes measured by AR were not different between the different age groups; however, the cross-sectional areas and nasal volumes were found to be lesser in females than in males. Our results showed that nasal airway patency was not affected by age, while females were shown to have wider nasal passages than males.