Abstract: Objective To investigate the value of a novel nasal secretion eosinophil cationic protein-myeloperoxidase(ECP-MPO)test paper in allergic rhinitis(AR). Methods We included 123 patients with AR admitted to the department of otolaryngology head and neck surgery, the central hospital of Wuhan from January 2022 to December 2022 as the AR group and 36 healthy patients as the control group. AR patients were treated with budesonide nasal spray for 14 days. The degree of ECP coloration in the AR group before and after treatment and in the control group was determined using nasal secretion ECP-MPO test paper, and the concentration of ECP in nasal secretion was also detected. Nasal secretion smears were made to count the percentage of eosinophils(EOS%), and subjective symptom scores were collected. The differences and correlations between the indexes were analyzed, and the working efficacy of ECP test paper scores in the auxiliary diagnosis of AR was analyzed by using the receiver operating characteristic curve(ROC). Results The pre-treatment ECP test strip scoring was higher in AR group than the post-treatment and the control group. The chromogenic grade correlated positively with ECP concentration of nasal secretion, EOS% of nasal secretion, rhinoconjunctivitis total nasal symptom score(TNSS)and visual analogue scale(VAS). ROC curve analysis showed that the area under ROC curve was 0.935, the sensitivity was 89.4% and specificity was 91.7% for the detection of AR with 1 as cut-off value. Conclusion The ECP-MPO test paper can effectively detect ECP concentration in nasal secretions, and its chromogenic grade can reflect the severity of symptoms in AR patients, which has a good auxiliary diagnostic value for AR.

Key words: Allergic rhinitis, Eosinophil cationic protein, Nasal secretion, Rhinoconjunctivitis total nasal symptom score, Visual analogue scale