Imaging criteria for diagnosis of chronic rhinosinusitis in children

SUMMARY

Symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) are nasal blockage, nasal discharge, postnasal drip, facial pain, headache, and reduction or loss of smell, but they are often subtle and make it difficult to obtain a firm diagnosis based only on clinical data, and especially to distinguish CRS from persistent rhinitis. A diagnosis of certainty of CRS relies upon either direct observation by nasal fibroendoscopy of nasal turbinates, middle meatus, and rhinopharynx, detecting mucopurulent discharge from the middle meatus, and/or oedema or mucosal obstruction, or by imaging of the rhinosinusal cavities. Imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT) scanning and magnetic resonance (MR) are currently recommended in consensus documents, while plain radiography is considered of poor diagnostic value. However, recent studies indicated that radiography by the Waters’ projection had a sensitivity of 84.2% and a specificity of 76.6%, which suggests to use it routinely in suspected CRS, limiting the number of more expensive imaging investigations. This seems important in the current economic landscape that requires a cost-effectiveness evaluation in each diagnostic procedure.