COMPARISON OF THE STATE OF THE MAXILLARY SINUSES IN A NEW CORONAVIRUS INFECTION COVID-19 AND ACUTE RESPIRATORY VIRAL INFECTION

The aim of the study was to identify possible changes in the maxillary sinuses during new coronavirus infection in comparison with the changes in the sinuses occurring during acute respiratory infections and to correlate the gender structure of the study groups. Material and methods. The study included 40 patients (18 women and 22 men) with a confirmed new coronavirus infection, hospitalized at the Covid Hospital Clinics of Samara State Medical University in 2020. All patients underwent multispiral computed tomography of the paranasal sinuses on a Ge revolution Evo 128 tomograph on the 10th day after the appearance of the first clinical symptoms. We also examined a control group of patients with acute respiratory infections with similar complaints of impaired sense of smell, rhinorrhea, and upper maxillary sinus discomfort. This group also included 40 people (24 women and 16 men). Statistical processing of the study results was performed using Microsoft Excel software package, the Mann – Whitney method of statistical significance calculation was used. Results and discussions. In 18 (45%) patients with a confirmed new coronavirus infection, a slight mucosal thickening along the lower wall of the maxillary sinuses was found symmetrically on both sides. Six (15%) of them were women and 12 (30%) were men. The age of the examined patients ranged from 31 to 83 years. Chronic sinusitis was noted in the history of 8 (20%) of the examined patients. In 6 (15%) patients with chronic sinusitis no abnormalities were detected in the maxillary sinuses at the time of examination. Two of them had parietal thickening of the mucous membrane along the lower wall of the maxillary sinuses. In the control group, there was significant symmetric parietal thickening of the mucous membrane of the paranasal sinuses in 24 (60%) examined patients (14 women and 10 men). There were no statistically significant differences in the prevalence of changes in the studied and control groups. Conclusion. According to the results of this study, there were no data on the pattern of occurrence of changes in the mucosa of the maxillary sinuses in new coronavirus infection with gender background or the presence of chronic inflammation of the maxillary sinuses in the history compared with the control group of examined patients after acute respiratory infections.