EFFECTIVENESS OF NASAL ENDOSCOPY AND C.T. SCAN OF NOSE AND PARANASAL SINUSES IN DIAGNOSING SINO-NASAL CONDITIONS

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of Nasal Endoscopy in diagnosis of sinonasal conditions and to correlate it with Computed Tomography of nose and Paranasal Sinuses. STUDY DESIGN: Cross sectional study. SETTING: Tertiary Rural Health Institute. DURATION OF STUDY: 2 years. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Diagnostic Nasal Endoscopy and Computed Tomography of nose and Paranasal Sinuses were studied in 122 patients, who presented with various sinonasal complaints to ENT OPD and results were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: Mean age of the study population was 35.48 years (SD= 16.15) with male predominance. Headache (77.04%) and nasal obstruction (75.40%) were the commonest presenting symptoms. Out of 122 patients, Computed Tomography scan (CT scan) diagnosed 102 patients of sinonasal pathologies whereas Diagnostic Nasal Endoscopy (DNE) diagnosed it in 94 patients with good correlation between the two and Kappa Coefficient is 0.691. Most commonly encountered sinonasal pathology was chronic Rhinosinusitis diagnosed in 80 patients on CT scan and in 70 patients on DNE. CONCLUSION: CT scan is good in diagnosing pathologies related to paranasal sinuses while DNE is good in diagnosing nasal pathologies. Both the diagnostic modalities are complementary to each other in making accurate diagnosis of sinonasal conditions.