Double-blind trial comparing flunisolide and placebo for the treatment of perennial rhinitis.

The effectiveness of a new topical steroid, flunisolide, was evaluated for the treatment of patients with perennial rhinitis. The sixty-nine patients in this 8 week double-blind parallel trial received either 300 microgram/day of flunisolide or placebo. The flunisolide group showed statistically greater improvement than the placebo group in such symptoms as the duration of sneezing, stuffy nose, runny nose and nose blowing. 63% of the flunisolide group compared with 39% of the placebo group felt the test spray had provided substantial or total control of their nasal symptoms (P = 0.0026). When those patients who were skin test-positive (allergic) were considered separately from those who were skin test-negative (non-allergic), differences in responsiveness were noted. While those patients who had negative skin tests received greater relief of their symptoms with flunisolide than with placebo, patients who had positive skin tests showed a greater responsiveness to flunisolide and reported a higher incidence of significant or total control of their symptoms. Careful monitoring of plasma cortisol levels revealed no evidence of adrenal suppression in any of the patients in this trial. This lack of suppression may be due to two factors: (a) flunisolide is rapidly metabolized into a metabolite with a low degree of activity and (b) a very low dose of corticosteroid is administered.