Plain radiological profile of paranasal sinuses in chronic nasal diseases in University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.

BACKGROUND: The paranasal sinuses can get affected by chronic diseases that maybe mitotic, bacterial, fungal and allergic. Plain x-rays, sinoscopy, tomograms, ultrasound scan, CT-scan and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique are some of the means by which the sinus can be evaluated and a diagnosis made. The aim of this study is to evaluate the plain radiological findings of the paranasal Sinuses in-patient with chronic nasal diseases in the University of Port Harcourt Teaching hospital. METHODS: This is a prospective study of patients seen at the otorhinolaryngology out patient clinic of the university of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital from August 2002 to November 2003. All patients with symptoms suggestive of nasal or paranasal sinus disease of more than 8 weeks duration were evaluated for the study. All the patients had plain radiographs in the occipito-mental, occipito-frontal and lateral views. A radiologist interpreted the x-rays. RESULTS: A total of 66 patients were seen with a male to female ratio of 1: 1.4. Ages of patients ranged from 17 years to 65 years. 72.7% had chronic infective sinusitis, 9.1% had vasomotor rhinitis and 6.1% had allergic rhinitis. Plain x-rays showed engorged turbinates due to allergy in 43.9% of patients, chronic sinusitis with engorged turbinates in 15.1%, engorged turbinates in 13.6%, chronic sinusitis in 10.6% and opaque nasal fossa in 6.1%. The maxillary sinus was most commonly involved site of disease as seen in (71.2%) of patients. The sphenoid sinus was the least involved (7.4%). Thirteen patients (19.7%) did not show any changes in the sinus x-rays. CONCLUSION: Chronic sinusitis is the commonest chronic nasal disease. Engorged nasal turbinate was the commonest plain x-ray finding. The maxillary sinus was the most commonly diseased sinus. In 19.7%, the plain radiograph was normal. Plain radiographs are a cheap and readily available tool for the investigation of diseases of the paranasal sinuses with good results in this environment.

Atlanto-occipital gap in Nigerians: Its relationship to difficult intubation

Background: Half of persons living with HIV/AIDS are below 25 years and majority of the remaining are believed to have been infected in their youth. The impact of HIV on young people has continued to generate increasing global medical; social; economic; political and academic interests. Aim: This paper reviews the pattern of existing documentation on HIV/AIDS regarding young people in Nigeria in presentations on this subject at international meetings and conferences. Methods: The review relied on a bibliography of 364 presentations from 17 books of abstracts and several solicited submissions; spanning 18 years; collated; indexed and published by the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research and the National Action Committee on AIDS. A matrix was constructed to categorize and tally the abstracts by several technical themes against the characteristics of the young people; aged 10 to 24 years that they reported on. Results: Eighty-five (23.5) out of the 364 were articles on adolescent/youths; the 18-year period; giving a rate of 4.7 articles per year. Regarding the context; 67 (78.8) concerned adolescents/ youths of both sexes. About half (47 or 55.3) were conducted among schooling adolescents/youths; and 23 (27.1) involved out-of-school youths. Twenty-three (27.1) titles were socio-medical research exploring knowledge; attitude; behaviour and practice; while three (3.5) were studies of biomedical nature; involving serologic investigations. Reports of interventions accounted for over half (47 or 55.3) of the presentations; most of which were on HIV awareness and prevention programmes. Conclusion: A low rate of reports on HIV/AIDS specific to young people at international conferences was observed; which does not reflect the level of importance and impact of the infection on this group of individuals. Amongst them; socio-medical studies; and interventions featuring awareness and prevention among schooling youths predominate. Interventions involving testing; treatment and care; and bio-medical studies especially involving vulnerable non-schooling youths; remain a challenge that must be faced