Ultrastructural study of uncinate process mucosa in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis

• Published in: Otolaryngology-head and neck surgery 2004-08, Vol.131 (2), p.P305-P305
• Main Authors: Rodrigues, Hamilton W., Valera, Fabiana Cardoso Pereira, Demarco, Ricardo Cassiano, de Mello, Valder Rodrigues, Anselmo-Lima, Wilma T.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0194-5998; 1097-6817
• DOI: 10.1016/j.otohns.2004.06.676

Objectives: In chronic rhinosinusitis (CR), the mucosa inflammation leads to qualitative and quantitative alterations in the respiratory epithelium, which lies over the whole nasal and sinus cavities, leading to the maintenance of the inflammatory process. The main goal of this study was to describe the main histological and ultra-structural alterations in the uncinate process (UP) mucosa Methods: Twelve patients with chronic rhinosinusitis and nasosinusal polyposis were studied and were compaired to 5 healthy patients, with no imflammatory disease. Results: In 3 samples of UP with normal pseudostratified colunnar ciliated epithelium, the morphological aspect of the cilia were found completely normal. Two cases were found with normal epithelium but inflammatory process at submucosa. In 6 cases metaplastic epithelium was found: 1 with scamous stratified epithelium with large intercelular spaces and 5 with simple scamous epithelium. In only patient different cellular types were found at the mucosa. Conclusion: Important histological and ultrastructural alterations of the UP were found in 75% of the patients. The decrease of the number of the colunnar cilliated cells and the number of cillia per affected cell, as well as simple scamous metaplasy, eventually found in cases of rhinosinusitis, might explain the maintenance of the clinical findings by epithelium destrucyion and mucocilliar system break down, which are responsible for the nasosinus phisiology balance.