| Summary: | 碩士 === 中國醫藥大學 === 醫務管理學研究所碩士班 === 98 === Objective:
Some patients complain that they feel uncomfortable because of nasal obstruction, although clinical measurements using flow meter and acoustic instrumentation show no obvious sign of severe obstruction. In this study, we intend to find the measured parameters which directly correlate to patient perception.
Methods:
Parameters including standard inspiration/expiration resistance, local cross-sectional area and volume, and minimum cross-sectional area and its corresponding position of the nostril tube were acquired by using flow meter and acoustic instrumentation. After the measurements, patients were asked to fill a questionaire to evaluate perception of nostril obstruction based on the percentage of perceived obstruction. The degree of obstruction for both left and right nostrils was divided into 3 levels, including mild (<20%), moderate (20%-40%), and severe (>60%). A total of 191 patients who had nasal problem were recruited for this study. Sixty-two patients with recorded breathing number of 0 were excluded, therefore only data of 129 patients were used for further analysis. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to observe which parameters are correlated to self-perception of nasal obstruction. In addition, multiple regression analysis was applied to observe the correlation between perceived obstruction and objective obstruction (quantified by measured parameters) for either right or left nostril.
Result:
It was found that both the inspiration resistances for three groups are significant different (ANOVA, p<0.001) at both left and right nostrils. However, only the inspiration resistances is correlated (Multiple Regression, p<0.01) to perceived obstruction for both left and right nostrils. Furthermore, The position of minimum cross-sectional area situated mostly at 2.8-3.3 cm in the nostril tube.
Conclusion:
Inspiration resistances might be used to evaluate the degree of perceived nasal obstruction.
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