Estimation of nasal cavity and conchae volumes by stereological method

Background: Studies evaluating the mean volumes of nasal cavity and concha are very rare. Since there is little date on the mentioned topic, we aimed to carry out the presented study to obtain a volumetric index showing the relation between the nasal cavity and concha. Material and methods: The volumes of the nasal cavity and concha were measured in 30 males and 30 females (18&#8211;40 years old) on computed tomography images using stereological methods. Results: The mean volumes of nasal cavity, concha nasalis media, and concha nasalis inferior were 5.95 &#177; 0.10 cm3, 0.56 &#177; 0.22 cm3, and 1.45 &#177; 0.68 cm3; 7.01 &#177; 0.18 cm3, 0.67 &#177; 0.31 cm3 and 1.59 &#177; 0.98 cm3 in females and males, respectively. There were statistically significant differences in the volume of the nasal cavity and concha nasalis media (p < 0.05) between males and females, except for concha nasalis inferior (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Our results could provide volumetric indexes for the nasal cavity and concha, which could help the physician to manage surgical procedures related to the nasal cavity and concha

Computed tomography measurements of different dimensions of maxillary and frontal sinuses

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We have previously proposed the use of Doppler ultrasound to non-invasively stage sinus infection, as we showed that acoustic streaming could be generated in nonpurulent sinus secretions and helped to distinguish it from mucopurulent sinus secretions. In order to continue this development of a clinically applicable Doppler equipment, we need to determine different dimensions of the paranasal sinuses, especially the thickness of the anterior wall of the maxillary sinus (at the canine fossa). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the thickness of the canine fossa. This study aimed to (a) estimate different dimensions of the maxillary and frontal sinuses measured on computed tomography (CT) of the head, (b) define cut-off values for the normal upper and lower limits of the different measured structures, (c) determine differences in age, side and gender, (d) compare manually and automatically estimated maxillary sinuses volumes, and (e) present incidental findings in the paranasal sinuses among the study patients.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Dimensions of 120 maxillary and frontal sinuses from head CTs were measured independently by two radiologists.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mean value of the maxillary sinus volume was 15.7 ± 5.3 cm³and significantly larger in males than in females (P = 0.004). There was no statistically significant correlation between the volume of maxillary sinuses with age or side. The mean value of the bone thickness at the canine fossa was 1.1 ± 0.4 mm. The automatically estimated volume of the maxillary sinuses was 14-17% higher than the calculated volume. There was high interobserver agreement with regard to the different measurements performed in this study. Different types of incidental findings of the paranasal sinuses were found in 35% of the patients.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We presented different dimensions of the maxillary and frontal sinuses on CTs. We believe that our data are necessary for further development of a clinically applicable Doppler equipment for staging rhinosinusitis.</p

Nitric oxide synthase inhibitors protect cerebellar Purkinje cells from zinc-induced cell loss in adult rat

PubMed: 21056651Zinc is an important trace element in biological systems; however, excessive extracellular zinc could lead to neuronal cell death following ischemia, seizures, and brain trauma. In this study, we investigated whether the intracortical injection of zinc sulphate (200. ?g/kg, i.c.) changes total number of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum and whether different types nitric oxide synthase inhibitors, N-(G)-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME), N(omega)-nitro-l-arginine (l-NNA), aminoguanidine and 7-nitroindazole (7-NI), have protective effects against zinc neurotoxicity in Wistar albino rats. Animals were divided into 6 groups: control, zinc, zinc. +. l-NAME (100. mg/kg, i.p.), zinc. +. l-NNA (100. mg/kg, i.p.), zinc. +. 7-NI (100. mg/kg, i.p.) and zinc. +. aminoguanidine (100. mg/kg, i.p.) groups. Total number of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum was estimated using unbiased stereological technique as 318,947. ± 20,549, 123,483. ± 23,762, 206,537. ± 43,128, 178,135. ± 26,635, 193,148. ± 46,104 and 212,910. ± 26,399 in the control, zinc, zinc. +. l-NAME, zinc. +. l-NNA, zinc. +. 7-NI and zinc. +. aminoguanidine groups, respectively (mean. ± SD). The number of Purkinje cells in zinc group was significantly lower than that of the other groups (P< 0.001). It was found that the nitric oxide synthase inhibitors have neuroprotective effect against zinc neurotoxicity on Purkinje cells. These data show that the inhibition of the nitric oxide synthase could prevent some of the deleterious effects of zinc on Purkinje cells. © 2010 Elsevier B.V

The classification of frontal sinus pneumatization patterns by CT-based volumetry

We aimed to define the classification of frontal sinus pneumatization patterns according to three-dimensional volume measurements