1Dr Nighat Saleem, 2Nazneen Kamran, 3Dr Uzair Butt, 4Hadi Safdar, 5Raja Assad Tariq, 6Babar Shah
1 AJKMC Mzd
2 PIMS Islamabad
3Ayub medical college Abbottbad
4 PIMS Islamabad
5Poonch medical college Rawalakot
6PIMS Islamabad
Vol: 16/03
Received: January 25, 2026 Accepted: March 02, 2026 Published: July 06, 2026
ABSTRACT
Objective: Investigate the role of serrated turbinates, radiographic abnormalities, and existing literature in aiding the diagnosis of Allergic Fungal Sinusitis (AFS).
Study Design: Cross-sectional study
Place and duration of study: Mayo Hospital Lahore from Jan 2024 to July 2025.
Methodology: 120 individuals who received computerized tomography examinations at our facility during January 2020 to July 2023 were included in our study. Hospital ethical review committee certificate number is 423, dated 20 February 2023. Patients identified as having Allergic Fungal Sinusitis (AFS) following tests for allergies and/or fungi were placed in the first group, while those identified as having rhinosinusitis (other than AFS) were placed in the second group. The CT scan pictures were examined for polyps, bone degradation, serrated appearance of turbinate and CT hyper-density.
Results: When comparing the radiological characteristics of AFS and non-AFS, it was discovered that the presence of a serrated turbinate was significantly more prevalent in AFS (p < 0.05). There were no differences between the groups in the terms of bone degradation, polyp presence, or CT hyper-density (p > 0.05).
Total number of subjects in this study was 120 who were equally split between male and female met the inclusion criteria for our study. Their mean age was 36.81 years (18-63 years of age range) and SD of 11.24 years. There are 120 patients; 86 (72%) are AFS (-ve) and the 34 (28%) are the AFS (+ve) individuals. Out of them, 19 patients (16%) of the AFS (+ve) patients were female, whereas 15 patients (12%) were male.
Conclusion: Our research revealed that the presence of serrated turbinates may serve as a helpful radiological signal in the diagnosis of AFS. In order to properly assess bone erosion in relation to other structural and morphological changes in the structure of bone, it is important to specify the measurements of bone density for sinus opacification.
Keywords: Allergic fungal sinusitis, Bone erosion, Fungal culture, Radiology.