Comparison of Waters′ radiography, panoramic radiography, and computed tomography in the diagnosis of antral mucosal thickening

상악동의 점막비후에 대한 WATERS방사선사진과 파노라마방사선사진 및 전산화단층사진의 진단능 비교

With the CT findings as gold standard, the sensitivity, the specificity, and the diagnostic accuracy of Waters' radiography and Waters' radiography with panoramic radiography were compared in the diagnosis of antral mucosal thickening of 16 patients. Three oral radiologists and three non-oral radiologists interpreted the Waters' radiographs and after 4 weeks, interpreted the Waters' radiographs and panoramic radiographs simultaneously. The interpretation point was the existence or the non-existence of the mucosal thickening on the medial, the posterolateral, the floor, and the roof of maxillary sinus. The obtained results were as followed : 1. In oral radiologist group, the sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of Waters' film were 0.7250, 0.8489 and 0.7578 respectively. 2. The sensitivity and the diagnostic accuracy in oral radiologist group were higher than those of non-oral radiologist group (P<0.05), but there was no significant difference between two groups in the specificity (P>0.05), 3. There was no significant difference of the diagnostic abilities except the specificity in oral radiologist group between Waters' radiography and Waters' radiography with panoramic radiography (P>0.05). 4. The sensitivity and the diagnostic accuracy were the highest in the case of medial wall interpretation, the specificity was the highest in the posterolateral wall. 5. In the posterolateral wall and the floor, the sensitivity and the diagnostic accuracy of oral radiologist group were higher than those of non-oral radiologist group (P<0.05).