Obstructive sleep apnea in pediatric patients: evaluation with cine MR sleep studies

Cine magnetic resonance (MR) imaging sleep studies have become a useful tool in the evaluation of obstructive sleep apnea in children with certain categories of pathologic conditions. In this article, the author describes a program for the use of cine MR sleep studies in the evaluation of children with obstructive sleep apnea. The following areas are discussed: clinical indications, patient preparation, anatomic considerations, MR technique, technical issues, image interpretation, commonly encountered diagnoses, volume segmentation processing of data, and controversial areas.