[Computerized rhinomanometry in legal medicine]. / Rinomanometria computerizzata in medicina legale.

ABSTRACT

The medico-legal evaluation of the damage deriving from nasal respiratory function handicap is based on anamnestic data and rhinoscopic findings. These parameters can actually be integrated by means of functional parameters obtained by rhinomanometry. Today such a method is reliable and well standardized. The possibility of obtaining some nasal function parameters by objective methodology is highly useful in clinical and forensic medicine. In the present work the mean values obtained from total nasal resistance testing have been matched with those referring to the single nasal cavity by submitting two groups to automated rhinomanometry one of subjects with normal rhinoscopy, the other of subjects showing nasal stenosis. Each test was performed by submitting the patient to thirty minutes of acclimatization. The patient was sitting with a mask suitably hooked up to the rhinomanometer which was, in turn, interfaced to a P.C. by means of an original acquisition system. The preliminary calibration was automatically made once a day. If calibration was incorrect the program impeded data recording. On the basis of the obtained data an attempt was made to identify a nasal resistance value which could be considered as a threshold; a dividing line between normal and stenosis values. Analyzing the obtained parameters it was rather found that a band of intermediate values lay between certain nasal perviousness and "heavy" stenosis. In this manner it was possible to define the total and unilateral nasal resistance values below which ventilatory function is always normal as well as a value above which the resistance values of stenosis are significant.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)