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.