What Are The First Symptoms Of Nonallergic Rhinitis & How Do You Test for It?

Nonallergic rhinitis is medical terminology, which mentions a specific set of various symptoms that resemble those of hay fever and nasal allergies. However, a nonallergic type of rhinitis takes place without any relevant cause. In most of the cases, the rhinitis of nonallergic type develops in individuals during their adulthood, while symptoms will last for around the year. Another prime difference between non allergic and allergic rhinitis is that nonallergic one never involves the patient’s immune system. According to statistics, 19 millions of people in America suffer from nonallergic rhinitis.⁽¹⁾

What Are The First Symptoms Of Nonallergic Rhinitis?

Nasal congestion is the first and the main symptom associated with the problem of nonallergic rhinitis. Accordingly, you often feel as required blowing your nose for the entire day. However, the mucus comes out in very few amounts. Congestion does not take place due to the buildup of mucus. Instead, you suffer from nasal congestion because your nasal passages swallow.

Along with nasal congestion, a patient of nonallergic rhinitis experience a few other symptoms, which come and go around the year.
Running nose
Stuffy nose
Sneezing
Cough
Post nasal drip i.e. mucus present in the throat
Headaches⁽²⁾

How Do You Test For Nonallergic Rhinitis?

The diagnosis of nonallergic rhinitis is according to your prevailing symptoms and identifying other problems, including your allergies. At the initial stage, your doctor will conduct a physical examination and ask a few details related to your symptoms. Here, your doctor may conclude that you are a patient of nonallergic rhinitis if you suffer from nasal congestion, postnasal drip, running or stuffy nose and other similar conditions. However, the doctor will recommend additional tests to rule out sinus problems or allergic causes.

In most of the cases, rhinitis takes place due to an allergic reaction. One of the effective ways to make sure that you have nonallergic rhinitis is to undergo allergy testing, which involves blood tests and skin tests.

Skin Test: According to the skin prick test or The reason skin test, your pathologist will prick some small amounts of dust mites, pollen, mold, dog and cat dander or any other common airborne allergen. If your skin is allergic to a specific allergen, it will likely develop a hive i.e. a raised bump at your skin’s test location. On the other side, if you are nonallergic to the mentioned substances, your skin stays normal.

Blood Test: Blood tests are able to measure the response of your immune system to a few of the common allergens based on the amounts of specific antibodies present in your bloodstream. Doctors refer to the antibodies as immunoglobulin E antibodies. Pathologists send your blood sample to a medical lab to diagnose it for collecting evidence related to your sensitivity towards a particular type of allergens.

Tests To Rule Out Sinus Problems: Your doctor will also conduct tests to make sure that you do not experience symptoms because of sinus problems associated with nasal polyps or a deviated septum. Accordingly, you have to undergo with the following imaging tests-

Nasal Endoscopy: Nasal endoscopy test involves the application of a thin and fiber-optic viewing device i.e. an endoscope. The device detects the inner parts of your nasal passages. Your doctor or pathologist will pass the endoscope through the nostrils to detect your sinuses and nasal passages.

CT i.e. Computerized Tomography Scan: CT scan procedure involves the usage of a computerized X-ray technique. Accordingly, the device produces images related to your sinus problems in a detailed way as compared to the ones produced via any conventional X-ray examination.⁽³⁾

Conclusion

To conclude, we should say that nonallergic rhinitis is entirely different from the allergic one and nasal congestion is its prime symptom. However, doctors have to conduct detailed diagnose procedures to evaluate whether the patient has nonallergic rhinitis or not.

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What Are The First Symptoms Of Nonallergic Rhinitis & How Do You Test for It?