Sinusitis

Alternative names:

acute sinusitis; sinus infection; sinusitis - acute

Symptoms:

The classic symptoms of acute sinusitis are nasal congestion, greenish nasal phlegm (discharge), facial and/or dental pain, eye pain, headache, and a nighttime cough. Some patients also complain of fever, malaise (feeling ill), bad breath and a sore throat. Chronic sinusitis is subtler, and can be difficult to diagnose. It manifests the symptoms listed above in a milder form, but usually persists for longer than 8 weeks. It is most common in patients with allergies.

Signs and tests:

The simplest way to test for sinusitis is through percussion over a sinus area; tenderness may indicate infection. Transillumination (examination by shining a light against the sinus), endoscopy, ultrasonography, x-rays or cultures of the material from the nose may indicate sinusitis in some people, but have been shown to be relatively insensitive tests for detecting sinusitis and are generally unnecessary. When sinusitis is not clinically obvious, a CT scan of the sinuses is an outstanding test to help in diagnosing sinusitis. Finally, when the sinsitis is thought to involve tumor or fungal infections, MRI of the sinuses may be necessary and can prove even more helpful. Individuals with chronic or recurrent sinusitis may need further laboratory evaluation. This may involve sweat chloride tests (cystic fibrosis), HIV tests, cilliary function tests, tests for immunodeficiency, and/or allergy testing with nasal cytology (checking the cells in the nasal secretions).

Update Date: 04/01/00

Updated By: Luis A. Diaz, Jr. M.D., Johns Hopkins Medical Institute, VeriMed Health Network