Diagnostic Efficiency of MRI in Evaluation of Sphenoid Sinus Mucocele Complications

Sphenoid sinus mucocele is a benign expansile mucus-filled cystic lesion as a result of chronic obstruction of the sinus ostium,  that may affect adjacent important structures and cause optic nerve and intracranial structures becoming involved. The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of MRI in identifying the disease and its complications through demographic factors age and sex. The study was conducted on (42) patients with sphenoid sinus mucocele (20 males and 22 females), aged (1-75) years in the Medical City Complex (Ghazi Hariri Hospital), Baghdad, Iraq during the period from January to July 2025. MRI machine with 1.5 Tesla from (Achieva, Philips Medical Systems) was used to examine the patients in the study. The results revealed that males were more likely to have complication more than females (p=0.001). The patients mean age was (36.5) years, and younger patients were more susceptible to the disease than the elderly with a highly significant difference (p<0.001). The highest incidence rate was in cavernous sinuses thrombosis 5 (11.9%), while the lowest incidence rate was in intracranial abscess and cerebrospinal fluid leakage 1 (2.4%). The study demonstrated that MRI had a high efficiency in diagnosing the disease in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy (96%), (91%), and (95.2%) respectively. Males are more likely to develop sphenoid sinus mucocele than females, while young patients are more susceptible to the disease. MRI has a high ability to diagnose sphenoid sinus mucocele and its complications and determine the factors that may affect infection.