Abstract:

Objective To measure the effect of ephedrine on nasal patency. Methods Thirty-nine healthy adults(male 21, female 18) were enrolled in this study, the mean age was 37.9±11.5 years(range 20~61 years). Eccovision acoustic rhinometry was used to acquire the nasal cavity volume, minimum cross-sectional area and the distance between the nostril to minimum cross-sectional area before, 5 and 10 minutes after the use of ephedrine(NV_b, NV₅, NV₁₀, MCAb,MCA₅,MCA₁₀, MD_b, MD₅, MD₁₀), and acquired the difference values and variational rate(ΔNV₅, ΔNV₁₀, ΔMCA₅, ΔMCA₁₀, ρNV₅, ρNV₁₀,ρMCA₅, ρMCA₁₀). Results 1 NV₅, NV₁₀, MCA₅,MCA₁₀, MD₅, MD₁₀ were significantly different from NV_b, MCA_b MD_b respectively. NV₅ and NV₁₀, MCA₅ and MCA₁₀ MD₅ and MD₁₀ were significantly different; 23.1% of the nasal cavity NV₅ and MCA₅ were smaller than NV_b and MCA_b. 2 ΔNV₁₀ and ρNV₁₀ were significantly bigger than ΔNV₅, ρMCA₅. 3 There was significant differences between men and women in NV_b, NV₅, NV₁₀, MCA_b, MCA₅, MCA₁₀, but there is no significant difference in ΔMCA₅, ΔMCA₁₀, ΔNV₅, ΔNV₁₀, ρMCA₅, ρMCA₁₀, ρNV₅, ρNV₁₀. 4 ΔNV₅, ΔNV₁₀, ρNV₅ and ρNV₁₀ were significantly correlated with age, but ΔMCA₅, ΔMCA₁₀, ρMCA₅, ρMCA₁₀ were not significantly correlated with age. Conclusion Acoustic rhinometry can be used to improve the accuracy of the ephedrine test, the results acquired at 10 minutes after using ephedrine were much better than those obtained at 5 minutes. The effect of ephedrine on nasal patency was not significantly different between men and women, and it has a decreasing trend with age.

Key words: acoustic rhinometry, nose, nasal patency, ephedrine