Objective To find new ideas for clinical diagnosis and drug targets by exploring the nasal secretions of patients with allergic rhinitis (AR).Methods Nasal secretion samples were collected from patients with AR and normal controls, and interleukin-4 (IL-4), interleukin-4 (Il-13) and periostin (POSTN) in the samples were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Meanwhile, total nasal symptom score in the AR patients was obtained as an evaluation index, and correlation analysis was carried out subsequently.Results The levels of IL-4, IL-13 and POSTN in the nasal secretion of AR patients were significantly higher than those of the normal controls (P＜0.05). There were significant correlations between IL-4, IL-13 and POSTN (R＞0.5), as well as between POSTN and the degree of AR (R＞0.5).Conclusions POSTN plays an important role in the pathogenesis of AR. IL-4 and IL-13 can induce the synthesis of POSTN in AR patients, and are closely related to the AR symptoms. Detection of POSTN level in nasal secretion can help diagnose and determine the severity of symptoms in patients with AR.