Relationship between CT Scores and Pathologic Findings in Chronic Sinusitis: The Indicators of Severity in Chronic Inflammation

Cho, Seok Hyun; Jung, Jin Seok; Jung, Jin Hyuk; Kim, Kyung Rae; Paik, Seung Sam; Jang, Ki Seok

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Chronic sinusitis is a common disease in otolaryngology, but its pathologic mechanism has not been clearly known. Also, the evaluation method for the severity of chronic sinusitis is not established. The aim of this study was to analyze possible factors associated with the correlation between the radiological and pathological severity of chronic sinusitis. In addition, we assessed the profiles of inflammatory cells in the sinus mucosa and peripheral blood eosinophils in relation to the overall pathologic grades and OMU CT findings. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Fifty specimens of pathologic sinus mucosa, obtained during endoscopic sinus surgery were stained with hematoxylin and eosin. Total inflammatory cells, plasma cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes and eosinophils were quantified. The preoperative OMU CT scans were scored by the staging system of Lund-Mackay. Also, the preoperative percentage of eosinophils in peripheral white blood cells were obtained with the complete blood count with differentiation. RESULTS: The count of total inflammatory cells, lymphocytes and eosinophils infiltrated in the diseased sinus mucosa correlated significantly with the severity of the pathologic grades and OMU CT scores. In addition, the CT scores assessed by Lund-Mackay system correlated significantly with the severity of the pathologic grades. CONCLUSION: The important indicators of the severity of the chronic inflammation in chronic sinusitis were OMU CT scores, overall pathologic grades, and total inflammatory cells, lymphocytes and eosinophils infiltrated in sinus mucosa.