Limitations
Several limitations of the present study should be mentioned. Firstly,
paranasal
sinusitis was diagnosed by MRI, which lacks a description of the
patient’s subjective symptoms. Although patients with asymptomatic
sinusitis can be overlooked, there is the additional possibility of
overdiagnosis due to the sensitivity of MRI. Furthermore, we could not
distinguish between acute and chronic sinusitis. Future studies should
evaluate the prevalence of paranasal sinusitis in the general population
using a combination of MRI and/or CT and the relevant symptoms.
Secondly, CT is superior to MRI for the examination of anatomical bone
variations, which is an important risk factor for paranasal
sinusitis32. Lastly, paranasal sinusitis in children is also a
common problem 33; however, our research participants
were limited to individuals aged 35–75 years due to factors such as
cooperation. Therefore, the findings may not be applicable to the
general population.