EXTERNAL FACIAL DIMENSIONS AND MINIMUM NASAL CROSS-SECTIONAL AREA

The relationship of the total minimum nasal cross-sectional area of th e decongested nasal cavity to specific, easily measured, facial dimens ions was examined. The nasal cavities of 51 healthy volunteers were ex amined using acoustic rhinometry following nasal decongestant and thei r minimum nasal cross-sectional area was estimated. This was compared with several personal characteristics, including height and weight, fa cial width and height, inter-canthal width, and nasal height, alar bre adth and the nasal triangular area (half the product of nasal height a nd alar breadth). The total minimum nasal cross-sectional area showed a good correlation with both the alar breadth, 0.55 (P < 0.0001) and t he nasal triangular area, 0.62 (P < 0.0001). No significant correlatio n was seen with the remaining personal characteristics. The results su ggest that it may be possible to produce a clinically useful formula t hat would be able to predict the expected normal total minimum cross-s ectional area of the nasal cavity from these external dimensions. This predicted cross-sectional area could be compared with that measured b y acoustic rhinometry. This may prove of value to a clinician wishing to establish if a given patient has a pathologically narrow nasal cavi ty.