Does the severity of sinus computed tomography findings predict outcome inchronic sinusitis?

OBJECTIVES: We studied the association between the severity of pretreatment CT scan findings and the Improvement in symptoms of chronic sinusitis afte r treatment. METHODS: We analyzed data from an ongoing prospective, nonrandomized clinic al outcomes study of patients treated for chronic sinusitis at a tertiary-c are academic medical center (n = 57, mean age 46.8 years). Disease-specific symptom severity was measured with a validated health status instrument, a nd CT stage was quantified with the Harvard CT staging system. RESULTS: In a multivariate analysis, symptom severity based on CT findings emerged as a strong predictor of both improvement in symptom score outcome (beta = 0.47, P = 0.01) and absolute symptom level after treatment (beta = -0,58, P = 0.001), CONCLUSIONS: Severity as assessed by a pretreatment CT scan is a strong pre dictor of outcome, Patients with higher symptom severity based on CT scans showed significantly larger improvement and lower absolute levels of sympto m severity after treatment. This study links CT scan findings and subjectiv e patient-based outcomes (symptom scores) using a validated outcomes instru ment.