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Dennis Shusterman,¹ Mary Alice Murphy,² John Balmes¹

¹Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
²Department of Pediatrics, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA

Abstract

"Nasal irritant sensitivity" is an important construct in environmental health science ; functional measures, however, lack standardization. We performed duplicate measures of nasal irritant perceptual acuity on 16 subjects (evenly divided by sex and seasonal allergy status) using two different test compounds: carbon dioxide (CO₂) (detection) and n-propanol (localization) . The a priori hypotheses included a) allergic rhinitics will display lower perceptual thresholds than nonrhinitics ; b) females will display lower perceptual thresholds than males ; and c) estimates of perceptual acuity using the two test systems will be positively correlated. We obtained CO₂ detection thresholds using an ascending concentration series, presenting 3-sec pulses of CO₂, paired with air in random order, by nasal cannula. We obtained localization thresholds by simultaneously presenting stimuli (ascending concentrations of n-propanol vapor in air) and blanks (saturated water vapor in air) to opposite nostrils, with laterality randomized. In terms of test-retest reliability, individual replicate measures for CO₂ detection thresholds correlated more closely than did the localization thresholds of volatile organic compounds (VOC) (r = 0.65 and r = 0.60, respectively) . As an intertest comparison, log-transformed individual mean CO₂ and VOC measures were positively correlated with an r of 0.63 (p < 0.01) . In univariate analyses, sex predicted both log-transformed CO₂ and VOC thresholds (females being more "sensitive" ; p < 0.05 and 0.001, respectively) . Nasal allergies predicted sensory testing results only in the multivariate analysis, and then only for VOC localization (p < 0.05) . The question of population variation in nasal irritant sensitivity (as well as the generalizability of results across test compounds) deserves further attention. Key words: allergic rhinitis, carbon dioxide, chemoreception, sex, irritation, nose, sick building syndrome, trigeminal, upper airway, VOCs (volatile organic compounds) . Environ Health Perspect 109:15-19 (2001) . [Online 28 November 2000]

http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2001/109p15-19shusterman/ abstract.html

Address correspondence to D. Shusterman, Upper Airway Biology Laboratory, University of California, 1301 S. 46th Street, Bldg. 112, Richmond, CA 94804 USA. E-mail: dennis@itsa.ucsf.edu

We acknowledge input received from E. Cometto-Muñiz, C. Wysocki, and G. Kobal during the design phase of this study, and we thank R. Loya of the Chemosensory Perception Laboratory at the University of California, San Diego, for his formulation and analysis of the vapor-phase stimuli used in this experiment.

Supported by NIH grant K08 DC00121.

Received 22 June 2000 ; accepted 15 August 2000.