A comparison of Scanora radiography with Waters' and panoramic views for the detection of mucosal thickening of maxillary sinus

The purpose of this study was to compare the diagnostic performance of Waters' and panoramic view; maxillary sinus posteroanterior and lateral scanography of Scanora for mucosal thickening of maxillary sinus as well as to identify the utility of Scanora for the detection of maxillary sinus disease. The assessment was done at 66 maxillary sinuses in 45 patients and the results were as follows: 1. Estimation of presence or absence of mucosal thickening. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive value of maxillary sinus posteroanterior and lateral scanography were 0.865, 0.860, 0.921, and 0.805 respectively and slightly higher than those of Waters' and panoramic views, which were 0.832, 0.835, 0.903, and 0.728 respectively. However, paired t-test showed no significant differences in the diagnostic performance of the two pairs of imaging modalities. 2. Estimation of the types of mucosal thickening. The diagnostic accuracy for type I, II, III was 75.3% on Waters' and panoramic view; 77.9% on maxillary sinus posteroanterior and lateral scanography. It was higher on the latter, but showed no significant differences from that on the former. 3. Reliability of interpretation. In intraobserver and interobserver agreement, both overall rates of agreement and kappa-value were slightly higher on maxillary sinus posteroanterior and lateral scanography than on Waters' and panoramic views. There was no significant differences between the two pairs of imaging modalities. These results suggested that scanogram is a useful diagnostic radiography as well as Waters' and panoramic view for detection of maxillary sinusitis.