Morphometric Evaluation of Frontal Sinus and Investigating the Role of Gender in Anatomical Variations in Cone-beam Computed Tomography Images of an Iranian Population

The frontal sinus has been of great interest to surgical and forensic specialists for human identification due to anatomical variations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of gender in the dimensions and anatomical variations of frontal sinus in cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images.

In this historical cohort study, CBCT images of 40 patients i.e, 20 males and 20 females, older than 18 years of age were reviewed. CBCT images with 1-mm-thick sections and NNT Viewer software for image analysis were used to measure frontal sinus height. The mean width, depth, thickness of the anterior cortex of the frontal bone, and the number of septa were measured in the axial sections, and the height was measured in the coronal sections of the CBCT images in both sexes. The data were analyzed by Student's t-test.

The mean frontal sinus height was 20.5 mm in women and 25.9 mm in men; this difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). The mean frontal sinus width was 48.3 mm in women and 57.1 mm in men (P<0.002). The mean frontal sinus depth was 16.5 mm for women and 22.1 mm for men (P<0.05). The mean number of frontal sinus septa was 2.1 in females and 3.1 in males (P<0.05).

The results of this study showed the higher height, width, depth, and number of septa in males than in females, but the difference in the number of the frontal sinuses and the thickness of the anterior cortex of the frontal sinus was not sufficient to accurately determine gender.