Technical Variations in Clinical Ostial Patency Tests

Abstract

The usefulness of nasopharyngeal-antral pressure difference recording as a part of clinical ostial patency testing is demonstrated by statistical calculations from 507 patency tests. This method offers a quick confirmation of the comparison of pressure variation measured by anterior rhinomanometry and by antral pressure recordings which are the main elements of a consecutive patency test. In addition, the nasopharyngeal-antral recording has many of the advantages of a simultaneous patency test. When this difference recording is applied, the nasal reference pressure recording can also be omitted without any loss of information sought by the patency test.