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7806374 
Journal Article 
Fungal sinusitis: diagnosis with CT and MR imaging 
Zinreich, SJ; Kennedy, DW; Malat, J; Curtin, HD; Epstein, JI; Huff, LC; Kumar, AJ; Johns, ME; Rosenbaum, AE 
1988 
1 
Radiology
ISSN: 0033-8419
EISSN: 1527-1315 
169 
2 
439-444 
English 
3174990 
Of 293 patients who underwent computed tomography (CT), surgery, and pathologic examination for chronic sinusitis, 25 had a diagnosis of fungal sinusitis at pathologic examination. Of these, 22 had foci of increased attenuation at CT (in four patients the mean representative CT number [Hounsfied unit] was 122.2 HU [SD, 8.2 HU]), and three did not. Of the 22, 19 patients (76%) met the CT criterion of this study (there was a 12% false-positive and a 12% false-negative diagnostic rate). Six of the 19 patients and one additional patient underwent magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, and all demonstrated remarkably hypointense signal characteristics on T2-weighted images. The findings at MR imaging therefore appear more characteristic of fungal sinusitis than the findings at CT. Furnace atomic absorption spectrometry showed increased concentrations of iron and manganese in mycetoma compared with their concentrations in bacterially infected mucus. This finding and the presence of calcium in the fungal concretion may explain the hypointense T2-weighted signal on MR images.