title: Validating the use of report-derived Lund-MacKay scores.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Lund-MacKay score (LMS) is the standard for communicating radiological extent of chronic rhinosinusitis in research. However, retrospective analyses are often hindered by a substantial lack of radiological data. Calculating LMS from radiologists' reports may overcome this but has not been formally validated.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty South Australian and 20 Texan patients with varying degrees of sinus disease were randomly chosen to undergo analysis. CT-derived LMSs were calculated directly by two expert rhinologists at each institution and compared with scores derived solely from accompanying radiology reports by two blinded reviewers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The total LMS obtained via the expert rhinologists correlated very highly with that obtained from radiology reports (Spearman rank correlation, 0.75-0.88; p < 0.001). However, when individual sinuses were specifically analyzed, the correlation was highly variable.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results show that in both South Australian and Texan tertiary rhinology centers, radiologists' reports can be reliably used to calculate the total LMS.
authors.affiliation: University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: May
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thwin
authors.forename: Erik Kent
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Weitzel
authors.forename: Kevin Christopher
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: McMains
authors.forename: Theodore
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Athanasiadis
authors.forename: Alkis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Psaltis
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Field
authors.forename: Peter-John
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Wormald
mesh_terms: D002908:Chronic Disease; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012852:Sinusitis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*