Abstract
We compared the nasal width and interorbital distance on plain radiographs taken using the Caldwell view. The nasal width never exceeded the interorbital distance in patients with stenosis of the entire nasal passage. Belenden measured the nasal width in patients with pyriform aperture stenosis and normal subjects on CT and recognized that it is markedly smaller in the former.
I postulate that if the Caldwell view is used, the nasal width also never exceeds the interorbital distance in pyriform aperture stenosis, based on Belenden's data. Therefore, the Caldwell view will be a useful routine examination in nasal dyspnea.
Pyriform aperture stenosis sometimes has two significant complications: a single central incisor and pituitary abnormalities. By contrast, it is unclear whether these two complications are present in stenosis of the entire nasal passage.
