Adenoid nasopharyngeal ratio in children suffering from otitis media with effusion

Otitis media (OM) is a major health problem that usually results from adenoid hypertrophy. The diagnosis is given based on symptoms and imaging studies, such as mouth breathing and lateral neck radiography (LNR), respectively. However, there are huge controversies regarding the LNR role in the management of patients with OM. This study aimed to evaluate adenoid nasopharyngeal ratio (AN ratio) in children suffering from OM with effusion (OME) and related factors. This cross-sectional study was conducted on 27OME-suspected children referring to the Ear, Nose and Throat clinics (ENT) affiliated with Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran, in 2016. All the children underwent standard LNRs and indirect laryngoscopy in order to have adenoidal and nasopharyngeal length assessment before surgery. After adenoidectomy, pathologic data were analyzed in SPSS software (version 21) using Pearson correlation, independent sample t-test, and Mann-Whitney U test. The p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. According to the results, 70.4% of the participants were male. The mean age of the participants was 7.81±2.52 years. All the patients in the study were symptomatic, and the most frequent symptom was mouth breathing (100%). The mean values of AN ratio, pathologic adenoid size, and laryngoscopic adenoid size were 0.825±0.099, 18.22±5.97, and 5.33±19.15 mm, respectively. The AN ratio was significantly correlated with laryngoscopic and pathologic adenoid sizes (r=+0.46, P=0.01, and r=+0.44, P=0.02, respectively). The findings indicated a significant correlation between AN ratio and adenoid real measurement. Therefore, researchers are recommended to use this procedure in the assessment of patients with OME due to its availability, inexpensiveness, and negligible sid effects.