OBJECTIVE To reevaluate the current criteria for diagnosing allergic fungal sinusitis (AFS) and determine the incidence of AFS in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). METHODS This prospective study evaluated the incidence of AFS in 210 consecutive patients with CRS with or without polyposis, of whom 101 were treated surgically. Collecting and culturing fungi from nasal mucus require sp...

Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA), which requires a set of criteria for diagnosis, occurs in atopic individuals, predominantly asthmatics. Oral corticosteroids are the cornerstone for the management of the disease. Allergic Aspergillus sinusitis (AAS), clinico-pathologically similar to ABPA, is also diagnosed with a set of criteria including demonstration of fungal elements in sinu...

Mucins locate to the apical surfaces of all wet-surfaced epithelia including ocular surface. The functions of the mucins include anti-adhesive, lubrication, water retention, allergens and pathogen barrier function. Ocular surface pathologies, i.e. dry eye syndrome or allergic conjunctivitis, are reportedly associated with alteration of expression pattern of mucin components. Recent investigatio...

OBJECTIVES Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) with eosinophilic mucin is relatively rare in Korea. We categorized CRS patients with characteristic eosinophilic mucin into several groups and compared the groups based on their clinicopathological features. METHODS In total, 52 CRS patients with eosinophilic mucin were enrolled. Based on the presence or absence of an allergy (A) to a fungus or fungal ...

RATIONALE The factors that control the secretion of epithelial mucins are essential to understanding obstructive airway diseases such as asthma. Although the complement anaphylatoxin C3a and its receptor have been shown to promote many features of allergic lung inflammation, the contribution to mucin expression has not been elucidated. OBJECTIVES To determine if the C3a receptor with its liga...

OBJECTIVE To resolve the diagnostic dilemma of allergic fungal rhinosinusitis (AFRS), an increasingly recognized type of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS). In spite of extensive studies, controversy exists regarding the etiologic characteristics, pathogenesis, and diagnosis of this entity. DESIGN Prospective, comparative study. SETTING Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Postgrad...

The purposes of this study were to quanititate and correlate the findings of pathologic specimens and fungal culture in patients with a diagnosis of allergic fungal rhinosinusitis. Seventeen patients were identified between 2003 and 2005 with noninvasive fungal rhinosinusitis. Surgical specimens were analyzed via routine and special pathologic processing and compared to the microbiological resu...

A hallmark of asthma is mucin overproduction, a condition that contributes to airway obstruction. The events responsible for mucin overproduction are not known but are thought to be associated with mediators of chronic inflammation. Others have shown that T-helper 2 (Th2) lymphocytes are required for mucous cell metaplasia, which then leads to mucin overproduction in animal models of allergy. W...

Skewed T helper 2 (Th2)‑cell polarization plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of allergic inflammations; however, the underlying mechanisms require further elucidation. The aim of the present study was to investigate the mechanisms through which the interaction between T‑cell immunoglobulin and mucin domain (TIM)4 and TIM1 regulates the expression of silent information regulator 1 (SIRT1)...