title: Near-infrared imaging of the sinuses: preliminary evaluation of a new technology for diagnosing maxillary sinusitis.
abstract: Diagnosing sinusitis remains a challenge for primary care physicians. There is a need for a simple, office-based technique to aid in the diagnosis of sinusitis without the cost and radiation risk of conventional radiologic imaging. We designed a low-cost near-infrared (NIR) device to transilluminate the maxillary sinuses. The use of NIR light allows for greater interrogation of deep-tissue structures as compared to visible light. NIR imaging of 21 patients was performed and compared with computed tomography (CT) scans. Individual maxillary sinuses were scored on a scale from 0 to 2 based on their degree of aeration present on CT and similarly based on the NIR signal penetration into the maxilla on NIR images. Our results showed that air-filled and fluid/tissue-filled spaces can be reasonably distinguished by their differing NIR signal penetration patterns, with average NIR imaging scores for fluid-filled maxillary sinuses (0.93+/-0.78, n=29) significantly lower than those for normal maxillary sinuses (1.62+/-0.57, n=13) (p=0.003). NIR imaging of the sinuses is a simple, safe, and cost-effective modality that can potentially aid in the diagnosis of sinusitis. Long-term, significant device refinement and large clinical trials will be needed to determine the diagnostic accuracy of this technique.
authors.affiliation: University of California at Irvine, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Beckman Laser Institute, 1002 Health Sciences Road, Irvine, California 92612, USA.
authors.forename: Usama
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Mahmood
authors.forename: Albert
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cerussi
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dehdari
authors.forename: Quoc
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kelley
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tromberg
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wong
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008443:Maxillary Sinus / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology; D015523:Maxillary Sinusitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014172:Transillumination / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods