nasal cycle


nasal cycle

Respiratory physiology Alternating congestion and decongestion of the nasal airway that occurs in 70% of adults, controlled by the autonomic nervous system, and which may be affected by circadian changes in hormone levels, temperature, humidity, posture, and emotion; in the face of a unilateral fixed obstruction, the congestion phase of the side opposite the obstruction may be interpreted as an abnormality of the normal side or 'paradoxic nasal obstruction'