The role of salivary duct morphology in the etiology of chronic obstructive parotitis: statistical analysis of sialographic features and computational fluid dynamics analysis of salivary flow

Publication date: Available online 27 November 2018

Source: Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery

Author(s): Wangyong Zhu, Tianjun Lan, Peisheng Liang, Xin Liu, Qian Tao

Abstract

Purpose

The causes of some cases of chronic obstructive parotitis (COP) without obstructive factors are still unclear. We hypothesized that some morphological features of salivary ducts might contribute to development of COP. This study aims to investigate the role of salivary duct morphology in the etiology of COP.

Materials and Methods

The investigators designed and implemented a case-control study. Cases were defined as patients with COP, diagnosed from September 2014 to May 2017, in the Affiliated Hospital of Stomatology, Sun Yat-sen University, and controls were healthy. The primary predictor variables were the occurrence of an accessory duct (AD), the number of branches uniting to form Stensen's duct (SD), the angle between AD and SD, and the angle between branches identified on sialographic CT images. Data from two groups were compared to investigate the association between these variables and COP. Chi-square test, Student's t test and Logistic regression were computed with significance set at p<0.05. Fluid dynamics analysis was used to analyze the salivary flow field in models of salivary ducts with different morphological features reconstructed from the sialographic CT.

Results

The sample was composed of 39 subjects with COP and 18 subjects without COP. The two groups were not similar in terms of the incidences of AD (71.8 vs 38.9%) and the angle between branches (96.5 ± 26.0° vs 71.5 ± 21.2°). There was no significant difference between the groups in the number of branches and angle between AD and SD. The area of low velocity was larger in model with the wider angle between branches.

Conclusion

The results suggest that the presence of an AD and a wider angle between the duct branches are associated with COP.

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