Blood basophils among patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) may indicate the degree of inflammation, according to findings published in the European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology.

“Despite improved surgical and medical therapies, [CRSwNP] remains a disease entity that is difficult to cure,” researchers wrote.

Study investigators cited a recent study showing that up to 4% of the population with CRSwNP reports a severe impact of the disease on quality of life. For a retrospective study, the researchers aimed to examine the role of another important infl ammatory cell, the blood basophil, in a large series of patients with CRSwNP (N=316) across various age groups.

Correlations Between Blood Basophils and Numerous Markers

The analysis included primarily young adult patients with CRSwNP (aged 19-60 years; n=243).

Researchers found that white blood cell and eosinophil counts in peripheral blood were not statistically different across age groups, while blood basophil (P=0.016), lymphocyte (P<0.001), and monocyte (P=0.031) counts, as well as Lund-Mackay (LM) scores (P=0.025), were statistically different between groups. The study team conducted a Spearman correlation analysis, which showed that blood basophil counts positively correlated with blood eosinophils, leukocytes, lymphocytes, monocyte counts, and LM scores across the whole sample (P<0.001).

Building on Research About Inflammation in CRSwNP

Previous studies have examined the role of other processes in inflammation among patients with CRSwNP, including mucosal-associated invariant T cells and—more broadly—postoperative changes in the nasal landscape that could alter microbiota into a diseased state of chronic infl ammation for patients with chronic rhinosinusitis. The latter study assessed patients who underwent functional endoscopic sinus surgery to remove nasal polyps.

Both studies found that inflammation impacts disease progression and symptom severity for patients with CRSwNP. The authors noted that “patients who undergo functional endoscopic sinus surgery to remove nasal polyps may experience postoperative changes in the nasal landscape that could alter microbiota into a diseased state of chronic inflammation.”

Regarding the results published in the European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, the researchers concluded that “the heterogeneous role of blood basophils identified in different age sub-cohorts of CRSwNP supports the hypothesis that blood basophil count may reflect the severity of inflammation in [patients with CRSwNP].”