Prevalence of Haller Cells and Its Relationship with Inflammatory Sinus Diseases on Cone Beam Computed Tomogram (CBCT) Images in an Iranian Population

 The facial oral pain and symptoms of sinusitis is one of the concerns of patients especially dentists which can be associated with Haller cells. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of Haller cells of an Iranian population and its relationship with inflammatory sinus disease using CBCT images.

 In this descriptive- analytical research (in 2018) samples were selected from all available CBCT images of patients referring to Tabriz school of dentistry. Haller cells cases were selected and the samples were examined for the presence of inflammatory sinus disease in the coronal and axial sections. The data from CBCT images were entered in NNT viewer version 2.17 and the images were reviewed by two oral and maxillofacial radiologists. Then agreement between the two observers was measured by Kappa coefficient. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20 and Chi-Square test and p value < 0.05 was considered.

 For total sinuses, the prevalence of Haller cells was 44.5% and it was 70.3% for chronic sinusitis. Haller cells were 48.4% unilateral and 52.6% bilateral. There was no significant difference in the frequency of Haller cells between men and women. Statistical analysis showed there was significant correlation between Haller cells presence and sinusitis (p value < 0.05).

 According the results of this study, people with Haller cells are more likely to develop inflammatory sinus disease.