The Diagnostic Value of Sinus Radiography in the Evaluation of Sinusitis

Acute or chronic sinusitis is a common illness among adults and children. Sinus radiography is the primary imaging study that most otolar-yngologists utilize when diagnosing sinusitis. In this study, we recruited 42 patients (26 males and 16 females) with age ranging from 5 to 83 years (average: 52.3 years) without a history of trauma or neoplasm, between January 2008 and July 2009. Upon receiving a diagnosis of sinusitis, the patients received sinus radiography followed by computed tomography (CT) within two weeks. Images of both sinus radiography and CT were reviewed retrospectively and compared with each other. The results showed that CT confirmed sinus fluid accumulation in all 42 patients, 39 of them were identified with sinus fluid accumulation or opacification by sinus radiography alone, the sensitivity of 92.9%. For individual paranasal sinus, the sensitivities of sinus radiography for discerning fluid accumulation or opacification in maxillary, frontal, ethmoid, and sphenoid sinuses were 88.6%, 88.9%, 57%, and 28.6%, respectively. Our study confirmed that sinus radiography had a higher sensitivity in detecting fluid accumulation or opacification in the maxillary and frontal sinuses, sinus radiography remains a useful imaging modality in assessing sinusitis in clinical settings.