Chronic Rhinosinusitis is Frequent in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: a Case Control Study

Abstract Background: Prevalence and impact of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) remain unclear. We hypothesized that CRS is more frequent in patients with COPD compared to controls and we aimed to evaluate the odds of CRS in both groups. Methods: We recruited patients with COPD and a healthy control group in a tertiary referral hospital in Switzerland. Diagnosis of CRS was defined according to published guidelines and supported by computed tomography (CT) findings. Sino-nasal-outcome-test-20 (SNOT-20) and sino-nasal-outcome-test-primary-nasal-symptom-score (SNOT-PNS-score) were self-assessed with a cut-off for abnormality of >12. Results: Data from 83 COPD patients (35 females, age: 67 years ± 10) and 34 controls (18 females, age: 67 years ± 12) were analyzed. In the COPD group 14 out of 83 (20.3%) fulfilled the diagnosis of CRS compared to only 1 out of 34 (3%) in the control group (OR 6.7; 95% CI 0.84-53.10; p = 0.064). Forty-eight COPD patients (59%) and 14 controls (41%) had an abnormal SNOT-20 score (OR 1.96; 95% CI 0.87-4.40; p=0.10), with a median score of 16.0 (ICR 21) in COPD patients compared to a median score of 8.0 (ICR 13) in controls (p=0.001). The SNOT-PNS-score was abnormal in 49 COPD patients (59%) and in 9 controls (26%) (OR 4.00; 95% CI 1.66-9.64; p=0.001). Abnormal findings of the upper airways did not correlate with COPD severity or smoking status. Conclusions: CRS was a frequent diagnosis in patients with COPD. CRS reduces quality of life in this patient group.