Introduction: Screening sinonasal evaluation is routinely performed before allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT), however, data supporting such evaluation is inconsistent.
Objectives: Assessment of the utility of screening sinonasal evaluation with computed tomography (CT).
Methods: A retrospective analysis of acute leukemia patients who underwent allo-HCT, for whom screening sinonasal CT scans were reevaluated, and for whom Lund-Mackay score (LMS) was calculated.
Results: Forty-eight patients, the median age at allo-HCT 38 years (18–58), 52% males, were included. 79% had acute myeloid leukemia (AML), 21% acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Conditioning inten-sity was myeloablative in 96% of patients, 21% of patients received total body irradiation. 19% of patients had a history of sinusitis before allo-HCT. Screening sinus CT was performed a median of 22 days before allo-HCT. The median LMS was 1 point (0– 10). The severity of sinus abnormalities was: no abnormalities (31%), mild (67%), moderate (2%), severe (0%). Mucosal thickening was the most frequent abnormality (69%). Eleven patients experienced sinusitis after a median of 93 days (11–607) after allo-HCT. 1-year cumulative incidence of sinusitis was 22%. No threshold of LMS and no type of sinus abnormalities were correlated with sinusitis development after allo-HCT. Mild sinus disease at screening did not negatively impact survival in comparison to no sinus disease.
Conclusions: Despite the fact, that majority of analyzed patients had either no or mild sinus disease at screening a significant proportion of patients developed sinusitis after allo-HCT. Evaluation of LMS before allo-HCT did not help predict the development of sinusitis after the procedure.