“Comparison of waters’ view with computed tomography in assessing pathologies of maxillary sinus” Garg Ranjana1, Reader, Shivaprasad S., Professor, Ashok L., Professor and Head of Department 1Address for Correspondence: Dr. Ranjana Garg C-53, Spangle Condos Old Ambala Kalka Road VIII. Gazlpur, Zlrakpur-140603 Distt Mohali, Punjab
Online published on 7 December, 2011. Abstract Maxillary antrum because of its close proximity to maxillary teeth is most important of all paranasal sinuses in dentistry. Objectives of the present study was to emphasize the importance of CT scanning in diagnosis and management of patients with maxillary sinus pathologies and to recommend the use of CT scan as imaging technique for assessing maxillary sinus before any surgical intervention with greater accuracy. Methods: 20 patients with complaint of headache, feeling of stuffiness, recurrent mucopurulent rhinonhea, pain on movement of head and percussion of teeth, loss of sensation and swelling over maxillary sinus region were considered for the study and subjected to both conventional and coronal and axial computed tomography. Conventional radiographs were assessed in random order by 2 radiologists and CT scans by qualified radiologist keeping it as a gold standard based on the 3-point radiodiagnostic scale. Agreement between the techniques and Interobserver reliability was assessed by Kappa Measure of Agreement. Spearman's correlation was used to measure the relationships between two techniques. Results: Cohen's Kappa for interobserver agreement of waters’ examination was 0.79 and between both techniques was 0.62. Sensitivity and Specificity for waters’ projections to detect maxillary sinus pathologies were 92% and 67%, respectively. Absolute agreement of 73% was found in both the techniques. Conclusion: From this study it can be concluded that CT should be used as the substitute to the plain film imaging before any surgical intervention in order to predict the exact location, density and the extent of the lesion into the adjacent vital structures. Top Keywords Waters’ Projection, Computed tomography, Maxillary sinus pathologies. Top |