Correlations between maxillary sinus and nasal cavity volume: An exploratory study into environmental influences on the human maxillary sinus

Previous hypotheses have suggested that maxillary sinus volume (MSV) is dependent on nasal cavity volume (NCV), and while NCV is highly correlated with climate, MSV is a passive by-product. To test these hypotheses 39 dried adult human crania from different climatic regions were examined using CT technology. MSV and NCV were regressed against each other and cranial size-variables using least squares and reduced major axis analysis. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests were also utilized to identify significant differences in MSV and NCV between populations. Results suggest that MSV and NCV are not significantly correlated, and while NCV scales with isometry relative to skull size, scaling properties of MSV were not significant. ANOVA results show that although there are significant differences in MSV between populations, they are not due to climatic influences.