COMPARISON OF CONE BEAM COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY AND COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY EXAMINATIONS of PARANASAL SINUSES: PRELIMINARY STUDY

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Background and Aim: The aim of this presentation is to compare the diagnostic image quality between cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) and standard sinus-protocol in computed tomography (CT) of paranasal sinuses. Subjects and Methods: 12 standard sinus-protocol in CT paranasal sinus examinations and 12 cone beam CT examinations were picked up from the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS). Several anatomic landmarks were chosen in order to be detected on the examinations. Three dentomaxillofacial radiologists evaluated the images. Before the evaluation, all observers were calibrated and reference images were available during the readings and Kendall s W was used for inter-observer agreement. The visualisation of anatomic landmarks important in sinuses was judged. The observations were graded according to a 3-point confidence scale. Results: There was no significant difference in fovea ethmoidalis including olfactory groove, lamina papyracea, ostiomeatal unit (including proc uncinatus, maxillary ostium, infundibulum), but only visibility of nasofrontal duct/frontal recess (including frontal sinus) and sphenoethmoidal recess (including sphenoid ostium) were found to be dependent on the imaging technique (p<0.05). These results showed that visibility are statistically significant in CBCT imaging. Conclusion: CT is a specialist investigation and provides unique information about the ostial anatomy, however radiation doses from CT are relatively high according to Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). Cone beam CT gives a substantial dose reduction compared with standart-dose protocols in CT, but detection of the most important anatomic landmarks of paranasal sinuses.