Acoustic rhinometry: influence of paranasal sinuses.
Hilberg, Ole, Ole F. Pedersen.
Institute of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Aarhus
University
APStracts 2:0545A, 1995.
The influence of the maxillary sinuses in acoustic rhinometry (AR) has
not been evaluated, and this is the aim of the present study. We
examined 6 subjects with acoustic rhinometry and magnetic resonance
imaging (MR) after nasal decongestion to compare the area-distance
relationships determined by the two methods. From the MR data we
obtained copies of the nasal cavities with and without maxillary
sinuses, made in plastic by a stereolithographic method. AR-curves
from models without maxillary sinuses differed from AR-curves with
sinuses included, but were in agreement with MR-curves without
inclusion of sinuses. A similar difference in AR was seen in two
subjects before and after flushing the nasal cavities with saline to
fill up the maxillary sinuses. The measured volume in the first 50 mm
of the nasal cavity models was unaffected by the sinuses, but the
volume in the first 70 mm corresponding to the length of the nasal
cavity septum was increased slightly but significantly (10.8 cm3 to
11.3 cm3, P = 0.05). The presence of maxillary sinuses increased the
volume of the epipharynx (70 - 100 mm from the nostril) from 12.2 cm3
to 21.3 cm3, P < 0.01, and this increase was not due to the
influence from the contralateral nasal cavity. We conclude that the
maxillary sinuses may significantly contribute to the acoustically
determined areas in the posterior part of the nasal cavity and the
epipharynx, especially during decongestion and may explain a part of
the difference between area distance curves obtained by AR and MR,
whereas contribution from the contralateral nasal cavity does not.
Received 22 May 1995; accepted in final form 5 December 1995.
APS Manuscript Number A544-5.
Article publication pending Journal of Applied Physiology.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 23 December 95