Soft tissue roentgenography of the nasopharynx for adenoids

Evaluation of adenoidal obstruction in children: clinical symptoms compared with roentgenographic assessment

“…In one of the studies, 2 symptoms and signs were evaluated against the volume of adenoid removed at adenoidectomy. The degree of nasopharyngeal airway obstruction was shown to be a more reliable parameter than the actual size or volume of resected adenoids in the evaluation of adenoidal obstruction severity 8 , 13 , 15 . On the other hand, some researchers have reported substantial correlation between clinical and roentgenographic ratings of the degree of nasopharyngeal obstruction, similar to the current findings 7 , 10 , 11 , 16 .…”

The adenoidal-nasopharyngeal ratio (AN ratio)

“…Since 1946 several radiological techniques of adenoidal assessment have been described. However, none of them has been widely accepted or implemented because they have not expressed the maximal thickness of nasopharyngeal soft tissues (Capitanio and Kirkpatrick, 1970;BWexetal., 1971); have not consistently shown landmarks (Weitz, 1946;Johnannesson, 1968); or have been impractical, expensive and too time consuming to be adopted for routine use (Goldman and Bachman, 1958;Handleman and Osborne, 1976;Hibbert and Whitehouse, 1978). Moreover, the literature is indefinite as to the normal limits of the size of adenoids and the objective criteria for the diagnosis of pathological enlargement (Johannesson, 1968;Steele et al, 1968).…”

Errors in the assessment of nasopharyngeal airway by radiography

“…Conversely, Goldman and Bachman (1958) emphasize the importance of adenoids in the vault of the nasopharynx, where soft palate movement cannot compensate for their enlargement Subsequently Hibbert and Whitehouse (1978) measured the distance between the posterior walls of the maxillary antra and the anterior convexity of the adenoid pad. The correlation of nasopharyngeal air flow with several different measurements has been investigated by Sorensen, Solow and Greve (1980) who found that Hibberf s method was…”