Comparison of Ultrasonography and Conventional Radiography in the Diagnosis of Nasal Bone Fractures

Background/objective: we evaluated the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasonography and conventional radiography compared to clinical examination as the gold-standard technique to determine whether ultrasonography can be the primary diagnostic method for the evaluation of nasal bone fracture.patients and methods: the conventional waters and lateral nasal bone view radiography and high resolution ultrasonography of 171 patients (128 men, 43 women; ean±sd age, 24±8 years) with a clinical or forensic indication for the evaluation of nasal bone fracture were investigated. the negative likelihood ratio (lr-), positive likelihood ratio (lr+), specificity (sp) and sensitivity (se) were used for determining the diagnostic accuracy. the negative predictive value (npv) and the positive predictive value (ppv) were also determined.results: of 103 fracture lines in patients with a clinically diagnosed nasal bone fracture, conventional radiography detected 80, while ultrasonography detected 90 fractures. the se of ultrasonography and conventional radiography was 90.2% and 77.6%, respectively; the sp was 98.5% and 82%, respectively.conclusion: high-resolution ultrasonography can be used as an accurate technique for evaluatingnasal bone fracture. conventional radiography can be replaced by high-resolution ultrasonograhy.