WEDNESDAY, Feb. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Before diagnosing allergic fungal rhinosinusitis (AFRS), physicians should consider several findings in addition to detecting fungal elements and allergic mucin, according to a study in the February issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery.
Karuppiah Saravanan, M.S., of the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, India, and colleagues studied 70 patients with chronic rhinosinusitis to resolve the diagnostic dilemma of AFRS.
The researchers evaluated patients through clinical examinations, computed tomography, skin test against aspergillin antigen and histopathologic and mycologic monitoring. Patients were divided into four groups: 36 into a likely AFRS group, 12 with likely eosinophilic mucin rhinosinusitis, four with likely sinus mycetoma, and 18 with CRS from other causes.
The researchers found that type 1 hypersensitivity, Charcot-Leyden crystals, bony erosion and heterogeneous opacity with sinus expansion were significantly more associated with the AFRS group.
"To diagnose AFRS, important findings should be considered in addition to the detection of fungal elements and allergic mucin: Charcot-Leyden crystals, type 1 hypersensitivity, bony erosion, and heterogeneous opacity with sinus expansion on computed tomography," the authors write. "The last three of these parameters may predict AFRS preoperatively."
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