ArticleCureus2024
Prevalence of Sinus Mucosal Abnormalities on CT of the Head Performed for Headache When Compared With Those Performed for Other Indications.
Article in Cureus, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background There is a high prevalence of mucosal abnormalities of paranasal sinuses on CT Head scans performed for all indications. The purpose of this study is to see whether or not such abnormalities are more common in scans performed on patients presenting with headaches when compared with those without headaches. Methods Images of CT scans of the brain of 100 consecutive patients from each of the two study groups (a total of 200 scans) were retrospectively reviewed for the presence of sinus mucosal abnormalities and their Lund-Mackay (LM) scores were calculated. A corrected LM score was also calculated using a correction factor for non-visualized sinuses in some scans and osteomeatal complexes in all scans. Radiological reports for these scans were also reviewed to note whether or not they contained any comments on the sinuses. All the reviewed scans were performed between January 1, 2021 and January 22, 2021. Results In the headache group, 17 patients had an LM score above 4 (which was used as the main cut-off point for this study). In the non-headache group, 16 patients had a score greater than 4. The mean LM score in the headache group was 1.24 and in the non-headache group was 1.4. There has been no significant difference in the comparison when corrected LM scores were used. In the headache group, 22 radiology reports contained comments on the sinuses compared to 11 reports in the non-headache group. Conclusion Results of this study indicate that there is no significant difference in the prevalence of clinically important sinus mucosal abnormalities in patients who had a brain CT for headache when compared with other indications. It was found that radiologists tend to comment on the sinuses more often when the indication was headache. It may be reasonable for radiologists to consider reviewing this practice. This might reduce unnecessary referrals to ENT and, more importantly, avoid missing other reasons for headaches.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.