Correlation between Lund-Mackay computed tomography score and subjective symptoms in Chinese patients with nasal polyps.

Background: The association between objective imaging findings and subjective symptoms remains undefined.

Aims: To investigate the correlation between objective imaging findings and symptom severity in the overall chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) population as well as its subendotypes according to the eosinophilic inflammation.

Methods: Patients with CRSwNP undergoing endoscopic sinus surgery were included. All participants completed the Sino-Nasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22) questionnaire. The Lund-Mackay (LM) CT scores was also obtained. Spearman correlation analysis was performed to evaluate the correlation between CT scores and SNOT-22 scores.

Results: Forty-four non-eosinophilic CRSwNP(neCRSwNP) and 93 eosinophilic CRSwNP (eCRSwNP) patients were recruited. There was significant association between LM total score and nasal subdomain of SNOT-22 in the overall CRSwNP patients. The nasal symptom of SNOT-22 was significantly associated with maxillary, frontal, sphenoid, anterior drainage, and posterior drainage in all CRSwNP patients. In eCRSwNP and neCRSwNP patients, the sense of smell/taste was associated with sphenoid and posterior drainage. Thick nasal discharge was positively correlated with maxillary, frontal, and anterior drainage only in eCRSwNP patients.

Conclusions: The high score of sphenoid and posterior drainage may suggest the occurrence of loss of sense of smell/taste, while high score of maxillary sinus may indicate suffering from thick nasal discharge in eCRSwNP patients.