Chronic Maxillary Sinusitis: A comparison of osteological and CT methods of diagnosis

Objective

To assess the differences between endoscopic and radiological methods of analysis for diagnosing chronic maxillary sinusitis (CMS) in archaeological skeletal remains.

Materials

32 crania from a Dutch post-medieval rural population.

Methods

We assessed the presence of bone changes indicative of CMS (i.e., bone growth and bone resorption) both endoscopically and through computed tomography (CT), and then compared results.

Results

We observed moderate agreement between bone growth scores obtained through endoscopy and CT, and fair agreement when assessing bone resorption.

Conclusions

CMS prevalence rates observed through CT may be comparable to rates assessed endoscopically, although caution is needed when making direct comparisons.

Significance

This is the first study comparing data obtained through endoscopy and radiological methods in the study of CMS, informing paleopathologists about potential biases in data comparison.

Limitations

Our small sample size likely impacted results.

Suggestions for further research

Further research is advised to fully explore the comparability of endoscopic and radiological method of analysis in the study of sinusitis.

Data Availability

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available upon request.