Abstract
The present study was undertaken to determine whether a modification to commercially available acoustic rhinometry (AR) instrumentation might allow equipment designed for use in adults to accurately determine the nasal cavity configuration of infants and children. The standard wave tube was replaced with a version having a narrow (0.312 cm2) internal diameter. After calibration, this device was used to generate nasal area curves for the nasal cavity of a full term infant cadaver. Direct volume measurements and area measurements of polyvinylsiloxane nasal casts of the same specimen were used to evaluate the accuracy of the acoustic method. AR correlated well with nasal cast data (r = 0.88) for total nasal cavity area. The acoustic method underestimated the total area at the nasal valve by only 1.8 mm2 (22.1 mm2 vs. 23.9 mm2) and overestimated choanal area by 10 mm2 (56.9 mm2 vs 46.9 mm2) compared to data derived from polyvinylsiloxane nasal casts. In addition, AR measured total nasal volume to within 5.2% percent of the value obtained by direct measurement. This is the first report that AR can produce useful nasal area information in infants, and it suggests that the device has utility both in airway research and as a nasal patency screening tool in the pediatric population.
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