Tehran University Medical Journal

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Background: Imaging abnormalities in the paranasal sinuses are regularly noted as incidental findings on MRI, however, little is known about their prevalence in the Iranian population. The purpose of this study was to classify these findings in the paranasal sinuses as seen on MRI and to investigate the prevalence, according to site and type of paranasal abnormality.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the T2-weighted axial MRI of 256 patients with diseases unrelated to their paranasal sinuses were reviewed between May 2002 and June 2003. The findings were categorized according to the anatomic location and the imaging characteristics of the abnormality. The abnormalities recorded included total sinus opacification, mucoperiosteal thickening >5mm, air fluid levels and retention cysts or polyps. Unilateral or bilateral involvement and septal deviation were also noted. A sinus was considered normal if it was fully aerated and no soft-tissue density was apparent within the cavity.
Results: Among our cases, 111 (43.5%) were male and 145 (56.5%) were female. Of these patients, abnormalities in one or more of the sinus groups were found in 110 subjects (42.9%), 55.5% of which were male and 44.5% were female (P=0.001). Maxillary sinus abnormalities were observed in 66.4% of the patients, while ethmoid sinus abnormalities were found in 63.6%. Of the ethmoid abnormalities, 21% were found in the anterior section, 9% in the middle ethmoid, and 8% in the posterior ethmoid. The most common abnormality found was mucosal thickening. Among our cases, 23.4% had septal deviation, which was significantly higher among those with sinusitis (29% versus 19.1% P<0.01). Of those patients with sinus involvement, 16% were involved in the sphenoid sinus and 5% in the frontal sinus. The results obtained from the patients with sinus abnormality revealed that 85% suffered from cough, nasal obstruction, runny nose, facial pain and post nasal discharge and 24% had been diagnosed with chronic sinusitis by physician.
Conclusion: Our results showed that there was a high rate of incidental abnormalities in the paranasal sinuses that are unrelated to the patient's presenting problems.

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Background: Among patients who have sensorineural hearing loss of unknown etiology, diabetes is one of the diseases to be routinely investigated. The relationship between diabetes mellitus and hearing loss is still controversial. The purpose of this study was to examine the prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss in patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) compared to control group.
Methods: In a cross-sectional study pure tone audiometry (PTA) and speech audiometry was performed in 62 patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM), aged under 40 years, and in 62 randomly selected age-matched non-diabetic control subjects. Subjects with otological and other metabolic diseases were excluded from the study. We applied the SPSS.10 statistical analysis software Chi-square and student’s test.
Results: Statistical analysis showed that the hearing of the diabetic patients were significantly worsen than the control subjects. The hearing level tended to be worsen in the diabetic patients than that in control subjects, but the differences were statistically significant only at frequencies of 250,500, 4000 and 8000 Hz (p<0.05). There wasn’t statistical significant difference between sex in two study groups (p>0.05). The mean duration of diabetes was no statistically significant with hearing loss (p>0.05). The frequency of complications such as retinopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy in the diabetic groups had no correlation with speech threshold (p>0.05). There were no significant differences between speech reception threshold, speech discrimination score and acoustic reflex in two groups.
Conclusions: We conclude that type I diabetes mellitus can cause sensorineural hearing loss.