Abundance of Maxillary Sinus Mucous Retention Cyst and its Associated Risk Factors in Panoramic radiographs of Patients Referred to Radiology Department of Shahid Sadoughi Dental School, Yazd (2011-2012)

Mucous retention cyst (MRC) is the most common complication of paranasal sinuses, which rarely causes any signs or symptoms. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and some associated risk factors of MRC in patients referring to the radiology department of Dental School of Shahid Sadoughi University of medical science in Yazd.

In this descriptive study, panoramic radiographs of 750 patients were continuously examined within one year in order to detect well defined, not corticated, smooth, dome-shaped radiopaque mass in maxillary sinus. In fact, MRC prevalence and its associated risk factors such as age, sex, allergy, Asthma, smoking habit and Diabetes were evaluated. In order to analyze the study data, SPSS software( version, 17) was utilized applying chi-square test.

Out of 750 examined patients, 77 patients were reported to have mucous retention cyst in their maxillary sinuses. The study results showed that these cysts were most common in patients of over 60 (P-value=0.001). Regarding the appearance of this lesion, such items as Diabetes and allergy were clearly significant (P-value=0.001, P-value=0.001). Moreover, other items such as smoking habit and asthma had an effect on this leison (P-value=0.007, P-value=0.016). On the other hand, gender did not reveal any effects on the appearance of MRC (P-value=0.057).

The findings of the present study indicated that MRC had no relation with gender, though a relationship was observed in regard with allergy, age, diabetes, smoking habit and asthma.