Correlation between symptoms and radiological findings in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis: an evaluation study using the Sinonasal Assessment Questionnaire and Lund-Mackay grading system

Computerised tomography (CT) scans are routinely performed prior to endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) in order to confirm the diagnosis, assess the response to medical treatment and provide important landmarks for surgery. However, the correlation between the findings of CT scans and the patient's symptoms remains ambiguous. The objective was to assess the correlation between preoperative symptom scores using the validated Sino-Nasal Assessment Questionnaire and CT scores in patients undergoing ESS. Twenty-two patients who attended otolaryngology clinics with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) were prospectively enrolled in the study. All of these patients completed Sinonasal Questionnaires (SNAQ) before they had ESS. Their CT scans were scored blindly by the surgeon and a radiologist following Lund-Mackay grading. Patients with high preoperative SNAQ scores had high or low CT scores. The same applied for patients with low preoperative SNAQ scores. There was no statistically significant correlation between SNAQ and Lund-Mackay scores ( P =0.5). However, there was a very strong correlation ( P < 0.001) between the scoring of scans by the surgeon and the radiologist, while there was a moderate degree of discrepancy in the grading of anterior ethmoid sinuses and osteo-meatal complexes. Morbidity of patients with CRS cannot be predicted from the magnitude of changes in their CT scans. Significant inter-rater variability exists in the grading of pathological changes in anterior ethmoid sinus and osteo-meatal complex as recorded in CT scans.