Fungal Infection in Patients with Nasal Polyposis in Two Groups with High and Normal Serum IgE Referred to Rasoul-e-Akram Hospital for ENT Surgery

Nasal polyp is a common finding in patients referring to ENT specialists. Also, some specialists believe that there are patients with nasal polyp and some evidence of fungi. The present study was undertaken to describe coincidence of nasal polyp and fungi in patients referred to ENT ward of Rasoul-e-Akram Hospital in Tehran. Patients & 118 patients with nasal polyp(62.7% male and 37.3% female mean age 35 years, ranged 12-70) were investigated in a cross-sectional study. 52.5% of the patients had high total serum IgE level. Direct examination and culture for fungi was positive in 32.5% and negative 36.4% of the patients. The most common isolated fungus was aspergillus(50.9%). Other fungi were candida(34.5%), penicillium (7.3%), alternaria (5.5%) and curvularia (1.8%). Mean age of patients with fungal infection was higher than patients with negative fungal culture result (40y vs. 35y P=0.06). Patients with high serum IgE level were more infected with fungi (49% vs. 14% P<0.001). Results showed that in nasal polyposis, a special attention must be paid to patients with high serum IgE and fungal infection.However, most of our patients had chronic sinusitis as well as polyps in their medical history which may affect our results. Therefore, further studies on patients suffering from nasal polyps and those cases with fungal sinusitis is suggested.