Maxillary Sinus Aeration in Allergic Rhinitis.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to investigate the relationship between allergic rhinitis, which is an important reason of nasal obstruction, and maxillary sinus aeration.

PATIENTS AND

METHODS

Three hundred fifteen patients who have a complaint of nasal obstruction and scheduled to undergo skin prick test (SPT) with a suspicion of allergic rhinitis (AR) were enrolled for this study. Thirty-two patients with positive SPT result and 30 patients with a negative SPT result were determined as group 1 and 2 (control group), respectively. A 3-dimensional reconstruction of computed tomography images of the 62 patients was used to assess and calculate maxillary sinus volumes (MSVs).

RESULTS

Total maxillary sinus volumes were measured as 21.87 cm(3) and 30.15 cm(3) in group 1 and group 2, respectively. A statistically significant difference was observed between the MSVs of the groups (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

Total maxillary sinus volumes were found to be significantly smaller for patients with a positive SPT compared to patients with a negative SPT. Thus, we may conclude that AR has a negative impact on maxillary sinus aeration.