Morphometry of frontal sinus in correlation to age and gender by Computed Tomography

Abstract

Introduction: Frontal sinus has distinct characteristics that can contributed to human identification. The frontal sinus morphology is considered to be unique with its peculiar characteristics in regard to its shape, size, and position, allowing for the frontal sinus’ configuration to demonstrate highly individualistic markers that allow for the sinus to assist in personal identification. Materials and methods: This is a prospective study conducted at Department of Anatomy and Radiology, Index Medical College, Indore and Department of Anatomy and Radiology, Ayaan Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad from January 2020 December 2021. Result: In this study, the maximum number of patients were in the age group of 18-30 years which were 41.1% (n =37) of total followed by age group 31–50 years having 34.4% (n = 31) in this group and 23.3% were 51-70 years. In this study, the average frontal sinus area of right side in males was 4.53 cm2 and in females it was 3.73 cm2. The area of the frontal sinus was not found to be significant in relation to gender in our study. Moreover, frontal sinus area of left side in males was 4.98 cm2 and in females it was 3.98 cm2. The frontal sinuses of males were found to be larger than that of females; however, the statistical difference of means between them was not significant. Conclusion: The present study states that morphological differences in the cranium between the two genders are determined mainly by the genetic factors, more so than nutritional, hormonal or muscular factors and also due to various ethnic groups and various other radiographic techniques used for the morphological evaluation of the frontal sinuses. Our results may helpful in understanding normal volumetric values of the frontal sinuses.