Introduction: Paranasal sinuses are complex structures and show individual variation. Providing normative values for paranasal sinus size and their changes related to age could be helpful in evaluating the presence of some diseases related to sinonasal region. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the development of maxillary sinuses and evaluate the volume changes according to age and sex by using stereological and ellipsoidal formula methods after that to compare these approaches with each other in children.
Materials and methods: This retrospective volumetric computed tomography (CT) study was carried out on 361 individuals (180 females, 181 males) between 0 and 18 years old (10 females, 10 males in each group, only 14 age group includes 11 males) with no signs of sinus pathology volumetric estimations determined on CT images using point-counting approach of stereological methods and ellipsoid formula by using morphometric data.
Results: Maxillary sinus volume measurements that were obtained using 2 methods were increased with age in both sexes until 16 years old. There was a significant correlation determined between 2 methods (ICC 0.894-1.000 for right and 0.862-0.999 for left maxillary sinus measurements). According to the sex, the right and left mean maxillary sinuses volumes were determined at 8.30 ± 5.19 and 8.57 ± 5.53 cm(3) in male and at 7.60 ± 4.57 and 7.99 ± 4.73 cm(3) in female by using ellipsoid formula respectively. By the stereological method these values were 8.28 ± 5.26, 8.44 ± 5.35 cm(3) and 7.64 ± 4.55, 7.85 ± 4.73 cm(3) respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between the volume of maxillary sinuses with sex and side using both methods.
Conclusions: This study presents the basic data for studies relative to the development of the maxillary sinus in children according to 2 methods. The current study demonstrated that the point-counting method and ellipsoid formula are both effective in determining volume estimation of maxillary sinuses and are well suited for CT studies.