Comparison study between clinical diagnosis and experimental diagnosis of fungal sinusitis

OBJECTIVE: To compare the differences between clinical diagnosis and laboratory diagnosis of fungal sinusitis. METHODS: One hundred cases of fungal sinusitis were reviewed in this study. The clinical characters including symptoms, physical signs, images and intraoperative signs were the main aspects of clinical diagnosis. The results of clinical diagnosis, pathology, direct observation of the nasal and sinus samples with microscope and the fungal culture were compared. RESULTS: The numbers of fungal ball, allergic fungal sinusitis, acute fulminant invasive fungal sinusitis, and chronic invasive fungal sinusitis were 82, 10, 6, and 2 respectively. The positive rates of clinical diagnosis, pathology, direct observation with microscope and the fungal culture were 95%, 61%, 78%, and 74% respectively. There was significant difference among the positive rates of above methods (P < 0. 01). CONCLUSION: Clinical diagnosis can be used as the preliminary method for fungal sinusitis diagnosis. The demonstrative diagnosis needs to combine all above methods. The culture was the main method for confirm the types of pathogenic fungus.