Evaluation of prevalence of Haller cells and it’s association with sinus inflammatory disease in cone beam computed tomography images in an Iranian population

Abstract

Introduction One of the concerns of patients especially dentists is facial oral pain and symptoms of sinusitis, which can sometimes be associated with Haller cells. Haller cells is an extension of the anterior atomoid sinus that is located at the orbital floor and above the maxillary sinus. The aim of this research was to evaluate the prevalence of Haller cells and its association with inflammatory sinus disease in cone-ray computed tomography images in an Iranian population. Materials and methods In this descriptive-analytical research, samples were selected from all available CBCTs of Tabriz Dentistry Faculty. The frequency of Haller cells in the study population was calculated. Haller cells cases were selected and the samples were examined for the presence or absence of inflammatory sinus disease in the coronal and axial sections. The data obtained from CBCT were entered in NNT viewer version 2.17 and the images were reviewed by two oral and maxillofacial radiologists and the agreement between the two observer results was measured by Kappa coefficient. Data were analyzed by SPSS 20 software and Chi-square test. Results The prevalence of Haller cells in the total sinuses was 44.5% and the prevalence of chronic sinusitis was 70.3%. 41.3% of the samples had Haller cells and sinusitis. People with Haller cells were significantly more likely to develop sinusitis (CI 95% = 249-763 and OR = 0.436). 48.4% of the Haller cells were unilateral and 51.6% were bilateral. 16.88% of the samples had unilateral sinusitis and 83.94% were bilateral. There was no significant difference in the frequency of Haller cells and the frequency of sinusitis in men and women. Conclusion There was a significant relationship between Haller cells and sinusitis