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Acute rhinitis (acute runny nose) - Diagnosis
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025
Instrumental research
To diagnose acute rhinitis, anterior rhinoscopy and endoscopic examination of the nasal cavity are used.
Differential diagnostics
Acute catarrhal rhinitis should be differentiated from acute specific rhinitis - a symptom of an infectious disease (flu, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, syphilis, gonorrhea). Acute rhinitis should also be differentiated from vasomotor rhinitis (neurovegetative or allergic), acute sinusitis and exacerbation of chronic sinusitis. Each of the infectious diseases has a characteristic clinical picture, which should be relied on in diagnostics. Acute rhinitis in these cases is considered a specific symptom of the underlying disease. In differential diagnostics, it should be borne in mind that exacerbations of chronic rhinitis and chronic inflammation of the paranasal sinuses have largely common symptoms with acute nonspecific catarrhal rhinitis. Anamnesis and features of the course of the disease in these cases will help to make the correct diagnosis.
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