Integrating phenotypes and endotypes in chronic rhinosinusitis: a combined clinical and experimental approach.

Abstract

Chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) represents a hot and debated topic in rhinology because of its high prevalence, heterogeneity of clinical manifestations and unpredictability of disease course. The quite recent dichotomic classification of CRS with and without nasal polyps has proved to be too simplistic to fully explain CRS manifestations and the underlying pathogenetic mechanisms. Being either the same phenotype expression of substantially different pathogenic mechanisms or different phenotypes the expression of the same mechanism, a one-size-fit-all therapeutic approach turned out to be insufficient in a non-negligible proportion of patients. Moreover, considering the attempt of giving a classification cut at a biomolecular level, a diagnostic and prognostic approach exclusively limited to subjective and objective clinical parameters is inevitably failing in many ways. However, to date no other more effective markers are available to monitor the trend of the disease. The fact of dealing with an apparently very frequent pathology responsible for a strong discomfort on the QoL and a substantial economic impact requires a diagnostic and therapeutic appropriateness for an adequate allocation of resources within the standards of precision medicine. The development of systems for a uniform archiving and sharing of the experiences of each rhinological center would enhance the efforts of the scientific community in defining integrated and targeted care pathways. The present thesis reports the results and the practical implications of three different experimental studies about the implementation of data storage and sharing systems, methods of analysis of therapeutic outcomes and inflammatory biomarkers in CRS