Immunopathology of nasal polypi

Abstract

Thirty patients operated for nasal polypi and 15 age and sex matched controls were taken for study. Estimation of albumin, IgG, IgA, IgM and IgE was done in serum and nasal polyp fluid. Histopathology of polypi was undertaken in order to divide polypi into allergic and inflammatory groups and to study the immunoglobulin profile in these two groups. Allergic polypi were found to be more common than inflammatory polypi. The inflammatory polyp fluid IgA level (208.19 ± 59.33 mg/dl) was significantly raised (p<0.05) as compared to serum (160.58 ±40.28 mg/dl) suggesting the protective role of IgA against entry of antigens. Allergic polyp fluid IgE level (5342.80 ±2540.77 LU, ml.) was roughly twice that of serum (2461.25±1546.25 I.U./ml.) suggesting local production of IgE, rather than that explained by simple filtration process. Also local production of IgE correlated with the tendency to sneeze and was found to be in excess in polypi infiltrated by eosinophils thereby suggesting the role of allergy in production of allergic polypi.