title: Fungal sinusitis: diagnosis with CT and MR imaging.
abstract: Of 293 patients who underwent computed tomography (CT), surgery, and pathologic examination for chronic sinusitis, 25 had a diagnosis of fungal sinusitis at pathologic examination. Of these, 22 had foci of increased attenuation at CT (in four patients the mean representative CT number [Hounsfied unit] was 122.2 HU [SD, 8.2 HU]), and three did not. Of the 22, 19 patients (76%) met the CT criterion of this study (there was a 12% false-positive and a 12% false-negative diagnostic rate). Six of the 19 patients and one additional patient underwent magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and all demonstrated remarkably hypointense signal characteristics on T2-weighted images. The findings at MR imaging therefore appear more characteristic of fungal sinusitis than the findings at CT. Furnace atomic absorption spectrometry showed increased concentrations of iron and manganese in mycetoma compared with their concentrations in bacterially infected mucus. This finding and the presence of calcium in the fungal concretion may explain the hypointense T2-weighted signal on MR images.
authors.affiliation: Russell E. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD 21205.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Zinreich
authors.forename: D W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Kennedy
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Malat
authors.forename: H D
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Curtin
authors.forename: J I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Epstein
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Huff
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Johns
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Rosenbaum
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009181:Mycoses / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012852:Sinusitis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed