What does the maxillary sinusitis look like on an X-ray?

1 How to determine the disease by radiograph?

Nasal sinuses, or paranasal sinuses, are cavities that communicate with the nasal cavity. This includes the frontal and maxillary( gaymorovy) sinuses, trellis labyrinths and the sphenoid sinus, located in the body of the sphenoid bone. Their epidermis is lined with a mucous membrane that performs protective and bactericidal functions. When a bacterial foci arises in the paranasal sinuses, inflammation develops( it can be sinusitis, frontal sinusitis, or sinusitis), accompanied by accumulation and stagnation of pus.

When analyzing the structure of the skull in a picture of sinusitis, a person without special knowledge will experience difficulties. But, having studied some details of the structure of the skull, the detection of maxillary sinusitis on the radiograph will become available even to an ordinary person. A good way to diagnose diseases of the upper respiratory tract can be and magnetic resonance imaging of the head. It allows you to check the condition of the mouth of the ducts between the nasopharynx and paranasal sinuses.

In a direct projection, an X-ray photograph will show the paranasal sinuses. Normally, they are not filled with any liquid contents, so they look like dark formations of semi-oval form on both sides of the nose. Accordingly, with genyantritis these formations will be supplemented by saturated white shadows on the background of the black cavity around the nose. So, in order to make it easier to determine what the sinusitis externally is, it is necessary to compare X-rays showing the norm and pathology in the nasal cavity.

2 Other ways to diagnose

The degree of staining of these formations is of great importance. Radiologists perform a comparison to determine the level of intensity of staining with a touch of eye sockets. In the case of coincidence of colors, we can state that the picture reflects the norm. However, it may happen that in the picture in the same area a round blackout with smooth contours with a diameter of about 1 cm will be displayed. This is most likely to occur in the case of a cyst or tumor. The fact is that the x-ray of the maxillary sinuses during the accumulation of the infiltrate can not remove the circular pathological obscurations. But if they are found and tend to increase, it is possible to talk about neoplasm in the paranasal sinuses of a malignant character. In sizes, cysts can also increase, but in different directions and proportionally. The tumor and cysts are differentiated by the method of contrast radiography. In addition, to distinguish between a tumor and a cyst, an MRI of the head is performed using a contrast agent. This method allows you to accurately determine the localization of the tumor.

Genyantritis can be determined on the x-ray, but it is difficult for specialists to understand what is the contents of the paranasal sinuses and the usual inflammatory fluid. It does not help to know and computed tomography. However, this diagnostic procedure is indispensable for injuries to the facial bones of the skull, suspicions of complications of diseases of the upper respiratory tract, chronic forms of sinusitis. But to determine the ailment is necessary for the purpose to solve the problem of performing a sinus puncture, which is an invasive procedure. During the procedure, the contents of the nasal cavity are extracted outward. Puncture is performed as follows: a special needle through the nasal passage on the side of the lesion under local anesthesia, a puncture of the wall of the maxillary sinus is made, which is then washed with an antiseptic solution, and the withdrawn contents are sent for examination. Puncture is done in the presence of the following indications: if a purulent infiltrate is detected, the effectiveness of the antibiotics used is low, severe headaches and in the nasal sinuses, accumulation in the blood sinus, complete violation of the outflow of fluid from the sinus.

Before starting the x-ray of the nasal sinuses, you first need to detect the symptoms of sinusitis. The causes of the disease can be acute respiratory infection, dental diseases and allergies. Symptoms of sinusitis with different forms of the disease are different.

3 Symptoms of

In case of acute manifestation of the disease, its symptoms are:

• temperature increase;
• fever;
• weakness;
• sneezing;
• nasal congestion;
• runny nose.

But this list often adds pain in the face, shooting at the root of the nose, forehead or teeth. If you press on the point of pain, it increases and spreads to the infraorbital part of the face.

Chronic sinusitis is characterized by a permanent runny nose, which does not disappear after its treatment. Patients complain of pain in the eye sockets and head. A feature of the chronic form of sinusitis is the swelling of the eyelids in the morning, inflammation of the conjunctiva, loss of smell. In addition, the chronic form is fraught with complications arising from the spread of infection to the adjacent mucous membranes of the maxillary sinus. The disease can provoke the development of meningitis and encephalitis. Often, treatment of sinusitis occurs surgically, with the help of an operation to eliminate the focus of the disease - haymorotomy. The purpose of the operation is to cleanse the maxillary sinus, from which fungal colonies, foreign bodies, polyps, and the expansion of natural anastomosis can be removed to improve the excretion of fluid from the nasal cavity. Surgical intervention depends on the extent of the lesion. As a rule, the inflammation is localized in the maxillary sinuses, however, with ethmoiditis, it becomes necessary to open the latticed bone, and with sphenoiditis, the sphenoid sinus.