Evaluation of Anatomic Variations of Paranasal Sinuses

Abstract

Nowadays, CT-scan is used as a diagnostic modality for evaluating the Paranasal sinuses with extraordinary superiority in comparison with radiography. In this study, 292 CT-scan cliche samples were collected for evaluating the anatomic variations and their prevalence. These patients were between 15-50 years old and they didn't have any pathology in their sinuses. According to the results, the septal deviation (34.24%) was the most common and normal variation and the other cases were sequentially as follow: 1Agger Nasi cell (36.22%), 2Concha bullosa (15.90%), 3Hypo plastic frontal sinus (6.24%), 4Aerated Septum (2.62%), 5Haller cell (1.41%), 6Onodi cell (0.40%) The theory was set forth for discussing the relation between septal deviation and Concha bullosa. This theory was focused on the existence of Concha bullosa in one side that increase the plausibility of Septal deviation toward the opposite side (Pvalue<0.001). INTRODUCTION The Paranasal CT-scan is used for examining the patients with sinusitis and its complications, because of the normal variations of Paranasal sinuses that have a constant role in etiology of the chronic and recurrent sinusitis. Also there are anatomic variations in CT-scan of patients that do not have any sinusitis clinical symptoms. The plausible pathogeneses prevalence and the clinical symptoms of anatomic variations are under study and investigations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the normal variations prevalence both generally and also considering male and female cases separately .Besides, this study was underlined the importance of using the statistical information in further studies in the field of the relation between anatomic variations and chronic or recurrent sinusitis and its complications. The hypothesis was set forth for discussing the relation between septal deviation and Concha bullosa, thus, the existence of Concha bullosa in one side, lead to septal deviation toward the opposite side. Furthermore, this research could be expand byconsidering the size of Concha bullosa in complementary studies due to that the bigger size of Concha bullosa, the more plausibility of septal deviation toward the opposite side. METHODS The CT-scan cliches of the paranasal sinuses were collected from patients that were referred to Imam Hospital of Tabriz university of Medical sciences, between July 2006 and April 2007. This research was based on a cross-sectional study and after the pilot studies on 50 CT-scan cliche cases, this sample size was selected. There were 292 participants in this study, 146 male and 146 female, equally. The average age of the participants was 31 years old. The patients who had the positive pathology such as sinusitis, polyp, tumor, fractures and those who were under 15 years old were eliminated. CT-scan checklist was considered as the control and evaluating method. Also, the patient's age, sex and symptoms were registered in the checklist. The anatomic variations such as Agger Nasi cell, Concha bullosa, Haller cell, Onodi cell, Nasal septal deviation, aerated septum and hypoplastic frontal sinus were evaluated in the CT-scan Evaluation of Anatomic Variations of Paranasal Sinuses