Azelastine Fluticasone Combination vs. Fluticasone

Allergic rhinitis (AR) is a major chronic respiratory disease with a prevalence approaching nearly 25% in the worldwide population.Allergic Rhinitis is a common and relatively undiagnosed public health problem and has been reported as being one of the ten most common causes for outpatient attendances to the general practitioner. Long term untreated allergic rhinitis may lead on to asthma. When exposed to allergens (pollen, house dust mite etc) in the atmosphere, the mast cells in the nose burst and an inflammatory response is triggered and patients experience sneezing, itching, blocked nose and running. These allergens may be used as provocation agents to recreate the disease symptoms to confirm the diagnosis of which allergens one is allergic to. However, there is a risk of allergic reactions in doing so. Adenosine monophosphate (AMP)achieves the same goal by stimulating the mast cells and causing them to burst without actually the risks of allergen provocation tests. Such tests are now commonplace in research and clinical medicine. Nasal steroids are considered to be the most potent medications for allergic rhinitis, particularly nasal blockage. Nasal antihistamines are also available but they act mainly to limit nasal running, itching and sneezing and have lesser effect on blockage. The other advantage is that they act very quickly while steroids take at least 72 hours to begin acting and weeks to achieve maximal benefit. Finally, they are free of significant short and long term side effects. Having said that nasal steroids are very safe and unlike inhaled or oral steroids have not been shown to cause systemic side effects in adults. Therefore, it is interesting to see if a combination of an antihistamine and nasal steroid would add their good qualities mentioned above and by the act of reducing the dose of steroid reduce their side effects. To do this we will use nasal AMP challenge as an outcome measure as we have done research studies for over a decade with. We will look at noninvasive nasal airflow parameters, nasal nitric oxide levels, and for safety we will look at the overnight urinary cortisol and creatinine ratio which is the most sensitive and noninvasive test of urine to quantify how much steroid has been absorbed in the blood stream.