The prevalence of Eustachian tube dysfunction symptoms in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis

Background

While Eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD) is a known comorbidity of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS), the prevalence of ETD symptoms in the CRS population is poorly understood. We sought to determine the cross-sectional prevalence of ETD in patients with CRS using the validated Eustachian Tube Dysfunction Questionnaire (ETDQ-7) and to correlate ETDQ-7 scores with 22-item Sino-Nasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22) scores, endoscopy scores, and computed tomography (CT) scores.

Methods

A total of 101 patients with confirmed CRS completed the ETDQ-7 and SNOT-22 at their initial visit to our rhinology clinic. Lund-Mackay CT and Lund-Kennedy endoscopy scores were also obtained. Spearman's correlation coefficient (ρ) was calculated.

Results

Among the 101 patients, 49 patients (48.5%) had an ETDQ-7 score of ≥14.5, signifying clinically significant ETD. The mean ± standard deviation (SD) ETDQ-7 score of the entire cohort was 17.8 ± 10.1. There was a moderately strong correlation between ETDQ-7 and the SNOT-22 ear subdomain (ρ = 0.691, p < 0.001). The correlation coefficient between ETDQ-7 and total SNOT-22 scores was ρ = 0.491 (p < 0.001), indicating moderate correlation. ETDQ-7 scores were poorly correlated to objective measures of sinonasal disease, including Lund-Mackay CT score (ρ = −0.055, p = 0.594) and Lund-Kennedy endoscopy score (ρ = −0.099, p = 0.334).

Conclusion

Symptoms of ETD are highly prevalent among patients with CRS as documented by patient-reported outcome measures. The correlation between ETDQ-7 scores and SNOT-22 ear subdomain scores is moderately strong, while the correlation between ETDQ-7 scores and SNOT-22 scores is moderate. ETD severity does not correlate with CT score or nasal endoscopy score.

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