Sinusitis (cont.)
What are the symptoms of sinus infection?
Commonly the symptoms of sinus
infection are headache, facial tenderness or pain, and fever. However, as few as
25% of patients may have fever associated with acute sinus infection. Other
common symptoms include cloudy, discolored nasal drainage, a feeling of nasal
stuffiness, a sore throat, and a cough. Some people notice an increased
sensitivity or
headache when they lean forward. In allergic sinusitis other associated
allergy symptoms of
itching eyes and sneezing may be common.
How is sinus infection diagnosed?
Sinus infection is most often diagnosed
based on a history and examination made by your doctor. Because plain x-ray studies of the
sinuses may be misleading and procedures such as CT
scans and MRI scans, which are
much more sensitive in their ability to diagnose sinus infection, are so
expensive, most cases of sinus infection are initially diagnosed and treated
based on clinical findings on
examination. These physical findings may include redness and swelling of the
nasal passages, purulent (pus
like) drainage from the nasal passages, tenderness to percussion (tapping) over
the cheeks or forehead region of the sinuses, and swelling about the eyes
and cheeks. If sinus infection fails to respond to the initial treatment
prescribed, then more in-depth studies such as the above scans may be performed. Rhinoscopy,
a procedure for directly looking in the back of the nasal passages with a small
flexible fiber optic tube, may be used to directly look at the sinus openings
and check for obstruction of these openings by either
swelling or growths. It may sometimes be necessary to perform a needle
aspiration of a sinus
to confirm the diagnosis of sinus infection, and to get infected material to
culture to determine what bacteria is actually causing the sinus
infection. Cultures of the nasal passages are rarely
helpful in determining what bacteria or fungus is causing a sinus infection.
Next: How is sinus infection treated? »
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