External facial dimensions and minimum nasal cross-sectional area

Abstract

The relationship of the total minimum nasal cross-sectional area of the decongested nasal cavity to specific, easily measured, facial dimensions was examined. The nasal cavities of 51 healthy volunteers were examined using acoustic rhinometry following nasal decongestant and their minimum nasal cross-sectional area was estimated. This was compared with several personal characteristics, including height and weight, facial width and height, inter-canthal width, and nasal height, alar breadth and the nasal triangular area (half the product of nasal height and alar breadth). The total minimum nasal cross-sectional area showed a good correlation with both the alar breadth, 0.55 (P < 0.0001) and the nasal triangular area, 0.62 (P < 0.0001). No significant correlation was seen with the remaining personal characteristics. The results suggest that it may be possible to produce a clinically useful formula that would be able to predict the expected normal total minimum cross-sectional area of the nasal cavity from these external dimensions. This predicted cross-sectional area could be compared with that measured by acoustic rhinometry. This may prove of value to a clinician wishing to establish if a given patient has a pathologically narrow nasal cavity.