Association between Clinical Symptoms and CT Findings in Chronic Rhinosinusitis

Background/ This study was conducted to find out the association betweenthe clinical symptoms of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and CT findings.Patients and 50 patients with CRS were studied. Their clinical symptomswere recorded according to the sinonasal outcome questionnaire (SNOT-20) and their CTfindings were graded by the Lund-Mackay grading system. The Pearson correlation coefficient was assessed between these two scores. Also we used multiple regression models for adjusted association among variables. The mean±SD of SNOT-20 and the Lund-Mackay score were 45±8.7 (range: 29–67) and 18.5±5 (range: 8–24), respectively. The mean±SD SNOT-20 score was higher for postnasal drip (PND) and facial pain; the lowest mean scores were for dizziness and ear pain.Pearson’s correlation coefficient of SNOT-20 and the Lund-Mackay grading system was 0.74 (p=0.0001). In simple regression analysis considering the Lund-Mackay score as dependent variable and SNOT symptom domains (nasal, oropharyngeal, sleep, facial, and systemic) as independent variables, the best associated clinical symptom domain was the nasal symptom domain (model r2=0.76; p<0.0001). In the multivariate linear regression model, considering the five symptom domains as independent variables, the model r2 was 0.8 (p<0.0001) and the only significant variable in the model was the nasal symptom domain (p<0.0001). Patients with higher symptom scores are more likely to have CT imagingevidence of rhinosinusitis.