The vast majority of patients with asthma have rhinitis, and rhinitis is a major independent
risk factor for asthma in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. The relationships between
rhinitis and asthma can be viewed under the concept that the 2 conditions are
manifestations of one syndrome, the chronic allergic respiratory syndrome, in 2 parts of the
respiratory tract. At the low end of the syndrome's severity spectrum, rhinitis appears to be
the sole manifestation, although pathologic abnormalities in the lower airways are already …