of the OC, raising suspicion of REAH in 16 patients. One patient
of allergic rhinitis and one of asthma were excluded. At surgery,
masses that were obviously edematous, with a mucosa of
indurate texture located in the OC, were sampled and sent
for pathological examination. Three patients of nasal polyps
were excluded. Control tissues were obtained from the uncinate
or ethmoid sinuses of 5 patients exhibiting cerebrospinal fluid
leakage but lacking any evidence of sinus disease. No patient
took steroids, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, antihistamines,
or macrolide antibiotics for 4 weeks before biopsy. Each
tissue sample was divided into 2 parts, 1 of which weighed
30 mg; this aliquot was added to 500mL of saline to form a
single-cell suspension. After centrifugation, the supernatant was
stored at _808C for the measurement of cytokine levels. The
Th9 cell number in each precipitate was determined. The other
part was immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at
_808C for RNA extraction.