Clinical features in maxillary sinus fungus ball in patients with malignant hematological disease

Previous studies on fungus balls have primarily focused on immunocompetent patients, and only a few studies have described the clinical characteristics of fungus balls in malignant hematological disease (MHD) patients. Therefore, we compared the clinical features of maxillary sinus fungus ball (MSFB) between immunosuppressive patients with MHD and immunocompetent patients.

Twenty patients with MHD and 40 randomly selected immunocompetent patients were enrolled and divided into MHD and non-MHD groups. All patients were diagnosed with MSFB and their clinical features were retrospectively analyzed.

Patients in the MHD group had non-specific clinical symptoms and endoscopic manifestations of MSFB, similar to those in the non-MHD group. On computed tomography (CT), the MHD group showed higher Lund-Mackay scores, lesser single sinus opacifications, more multiple sinus opacifications on the affected side, and more bilateral opacifications compared to the non-MHD group. The MHD group had a lower frequency of central hyper-density and heterogeneous opacifications than the non-MHD group. There were no significant differences between the two groups in terms of the fungal-infected side, lateral sinus wall ratio, sclerosis of the lateral sinus wall, erosion of the inner sinus wall, and nasal septum deviation.

The clinical symptoms and endoscopic manifestations of MSFB in patients with MHD were similar to those of immunocompetent patients. However, more atypical signs and wider mucosal inflammation were found on CT scans of MSFB patients with MHD. These results indicate that caution should be executed when excluding the possibility of fungus balls in immunosuppressive patients.