CONTRIBUTION OF CHEST AND PARANASAL SINUS RADIOGRAPHS TO THE MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE ASTHMA

In order to evaluate the clinical utility of chest and paranasal sinus radiographs on admission in cases of acute asthma, the radiographs of adult patients admitted to our hospital for acute asthma over a perio d of 1 year were studied. The findings were specified afterwards by a senior diagnostic radiologist and their impact on the management of as thma was evaluated by reviewing the medical records of the patients re trospectively. Abnormalities were detected in 50% of the chest radiogr aphs (55 of 110) and these resulted in management changes in 5% of cas es (6 of 100). Abnormalities in any paranasal sinuses were detected in 85% of the sinus radiographs (93 of 100), and maxillary sinus abnorma lities in 63% (70 of 100). 29% of the sinus abnormalities (32 of 110) resulted in an immediate alteration in treatment. Hence abnormalities were more common in the paranasal sinus radiographs than in the chest radiographs (p<0.001), and the impact of the sinus radiographs on the treatment of asthma was also greater (p<0.001). We recommend that whil e obtaining a chest radiograph routinely may be adviseable in severe c ases of acute asthma, at least when the patient is admitted to hospita l, serious thought should be given to routinely obtaining a sinus radi ograph in these cases as well.