The effect of nasal septum deviation on subclinical cardiac autonomic dysfunction

Background: Nasal septum deviation is one of the most frequently encountered nasal pathology in otorhinolaryngology clinics. Disease with a high comorbidity such as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS), among whose etiology septum deviation takes place, can cause subclinical pathologies like atrial fibrillation. The main objective of this study was to determine the effect of nasal septum deviation on subclinical cardiac pathologies. Methods: The study included a total of 80 patients which were a group of 40 patients who admitted to the otorhinolaryngology department with a complaint of nasal obstruction and were diagnosed as having nasal septum deviation and a control group of 40 patients who admitted to the same department with complaints other than nasal obstruction and had no nasal septum deviation for the period of April 2015-August 2015. Initially, all patients were performed rhinomanometric measurement and then the patients were required to grade their symptoms of nasal obstruction using a 10-unit visual analog scale (VAS). Following that, patients were performed to transthoracic echocardiography by cardiology department and all the results were compared between two groups. Results: In the patient group while the VAS and transnasal pressure were found meaningful higher, the transnasal flow was found meaningful lower than the control group. In the patient group PA septum, PA tricuspide, PA lateral-tricuspide, PA septum-tricuspide values were found meaningful higher than the control group. In the patient group left atrium width (LA), LA volume maximum, LA volume minimum and LA volume p values, which show the size of left atrium, were found meaningful high in comparison to the control group. Conclusions: As a result of the data obtained from this study, the research demonstrates that nasal septum deviation can cause subclinical cardiac pathologies such as atrial fibrillation and these pathologies can be detected with noninvasive methods such as echocardiography.