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[The upper airway MRI of obstructive sleep apnea patients]
1Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head Neck Surgery, Affiliated Beijing Tongren Hospiatal, Capital University of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China. bjsent@public3.bta.net.cn
Objective:
To investigate the mechanisms of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome(OSAS) through observing the upper airway caliber and its corresponding pharyngeal wall of OSAS patients by MRI.
Methods:
The upper airway(UA) of 18 OSAS patients were examined by MRI. The cross-sectional area of the UA and lateral parapharyngeal fat pad (LPFP) were calculated. The thickness of lateral and posterior pharyngeal wall (LW & PW) and other related indices were also measured. Nineteen nonsnoring age-matched normal subjects were selected as the control group.
Results:
1. The retropalatal (RP) and retroglossal (RG) region UA cross-sectional areas of OSAS patients were smaller than that of the control (P < 0.05). The epiglottal (EPC) region UA cross-sectional area was not significantly different between the 2 groups (P = 0.204). 2. The anterior-posterior/Lateral ratio(A-P/L) of UA in RP, RG, EPG regions was bigger in patients group than that of the control (P < 0.05). 3. The cross-sectional area of LPFP in patients group was larger than that of the control group (P = 1.76E-7). 4. The thickness of the PW in the RP, RG and EPG region was thicker in patients group than that of the control (P < 0.05). Although the thickness of the LW in the RP region was not statistically different between the 2 groups (P = 0.94), this index in RG and EPG region was larger in patients group than that of the control (P = < 0.05). 5. Sagittal MRI image showed that the length, thickness and cross-sectional area of the palate in patient group was larger than that of the control (P < 0.01).
Conclusions:
The study suggests that the pathogenesis of OSAS is related to the following factors: UA caliber and its AP/L ratio, the thickness of LW and PW, the size of LPFP in RP region, and the size and length of the palate.