Anatomical Variations of the Sinonasal Area and Their Clinical Impact on Sinus Pathology: A Systematic Review

Abstract Introduction Anatomical variations of the nasal cavity and of the paranasal sinuses are frequently encountered and play an important role in dysfunctional drainage of sinuses. However, it is not clear in the literature whether they predispose to sinus pathology. Objectives The aim of the present review is to summarize the understanding of the association between anatomical variations of the sinonasal area and sinus pathology. Data Synthesis The present review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. We performedathorough research on PubMed from October2004 until May 2020 byusing the search terms paranasal sinus anatomical variations and sinus disease, sinusitis, and mucosal disease. Thirty studies were eligible and were included in the analysis. Overall, the studies encompassed a total of 6,999 patients included in the present review. In many studies, it has been statistically established that certain anatomical variations increase the risk of sinus disease. On the other hand, the rest of the collected studies failed to show any statistically significant correlation between anatomical variants and sinus pathology. Conclusion The present study highlights the possible correlation between some anatomical variations of the sinonasal area and pathologies of the paranasal sinuses. Careful assessment and computed tomography (CT) in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis is needed, especially in those undergoing endoscopic surgery, to identify and treat anatomical variations in the paranasal sinuses that may be correlated with rhinosinusitis. Due to contradictory results in the literature, further research is needed to elucidate the effects of anatomical variants of the sinonasal area.

Anatomical Variations of the Sinonasal Area and Their Clinical Impact on Sinus Pathology: A Systematic Review.

Introduction Anatomical variations of the nasal cavity and of the paranasal sinuses are frequently encountered and play an important role in dysfunctional drainage of sinuses. However, it is not clear in the literature whether they predispose to sinus pathology. Objectives The aim of the present review is to summarize the understanding of the association between anatomical variations of the sinonasal area and sinus pathology. Data Synthesis The present review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. We performed a thorough research on PubMed from October 2004 until May 2020 by using the search terms paranasal sinus anatomical variations and sinus disease , sinusitis , and mucosal disease . Thirty studies were eligible and were included in the analysis. Overall, the studies encompassed a total of 6,999 patients included in the present review. In many studies, it has been statistically established that certain anatomical variations increase the risk of sinus disease. On the other hand, the rest of the collected studies failed to show any statistically significant correlation between anatomical variants and sinus pathology. Conclusion The present study highlights the possible correlation between some anatomical variations of the sinonasal area and pathologies of the paranasal sinuses. Careful assessment and computed tomography (CT) in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis is needed, especially in those undergoing endoscopic surgery, to identify and treat anatomical variations in the paranasal sinuses that may be correlated with rhinosinusitis. Due to contradictory results in the literature, further research is needed to elucidate the effects of anatomical variants of the sinonasal area.

Genomic tests of the species-pump hypothesis: Recent island connectivity cycles drive population divergence but not speciation in Caribbean crickets across the Virgin Islands.

Harnessing the power of genomic scans, we test the debated "species pump" hypothesis that implicates repeated cycles of island connectivity and isolation as drivers of divergence. This question has gone understudied given the limited resolution of past molecular markers for studying such dynamic phenomena. With an average of 32,000 SNPs from the genome of 136 individuals from 10 populations of a Caribbean flightless ground cricket species (Amphiacusta sanctaecrucis) and a complementary set of statistical approaches, we infer a stepping-stone colonization model and high levels of genetic differentiation across the Virgin Islands, which have been periodically interconnected until 8 ka. Estimates of divergence times from models based on the site frequency spectrum coincide with a period of repeated connection and fragmentation of the islands at 75-130 ka. These results are consistent with a role of island connectivity cycles in promoting genomic divergence and indicate that the genetic distinctiveness of island populations has persisted despite subsequent and extended interisland connections identified from bathymetric data. We discuss these findings in the broader context of Caribbean biogeography, and more specifically why high levels of genomic divergence across the Virgin Islands associated with repeated connectivity cycles do not actually translate into species diversification.

Automated DNA-based plant identification for large-scale biodiversity assessment.

Rapid degradation of tropical forests urges to improve our efficiency in large-scale biodiversity assessment. DNA barcoding can assist greatly in this task, but commonly used phenetic approaches for DNA-based identifications rely on the existence of comprehensive reference databases, which are infeasible for hyperdiverse tropical ecosystems. Alternatively, phylogenetic methods are more robust to sparse taxon sampling but time-consuming, while multiple alignment of species-diagnostic, typically length-variable, markers can be problematic across divergent taxa. We advocate the combination of phylogenetic and phenetic methods for taxonomic assignment of DNA-barcode sequences against incomplete reference databases such as GenBank, and we developed a pipeline to implement this approach on large-scale plant diversity projects. The pipeline workflow includes several steps: database construction and curation, query sequence clustering, sequence retrieval, distance calculation, multiple alignment and phylogenetic inference. We describe the strategies used to establish these steps and the optimization of parameters to fit the selected psbA-trnH marker. We tested the pipeline using infertile plant samples and herbivore diet sequences from the highly threatened Nicaraguan seasonally dry forest and exploiting a valuable purpose-built resource: a partial local reference database of plant psbA-trnH. The selected methodology proved efficient and reliable for high-throughput taxonomic assignment, and our results corroborate the advantage of applying 'strict' tree-based criteria to avoid false positives. The pipeline tools are distributed as the scripts suite 'BAGpipe' (pipeline for Biodiversity Assessment using GenBank data), which can be readily adjusted to the purposes of other projects and applied to sequence-based identification for any marker or taxon.