[Analysis of upper airway structure development in children with different characteristics]

Objective: To analyze the development of upper airway in children with different characteristics. Methods: From June 2018 to June 2020, a total of 425 children younger than 16 years old who underwent head MRI examination and did not have sleep-disordered breathing were included in the study. The length of soft palate, tongue, upper airway, mental spine clivus, adenoid thickness and nasopharyngeal width were measured in the midsagittal plane of MRI image. Single factor variance analysis was used to compare the gender differences of upper airway parameters within certain age groups. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between upper airway parameters and age. Results: The numbers of subjects in infant, young child, preschool, school age and adolescent group were 80, 86, 90, 90 and 79, respectively. There were 219 males, accounting for 51.5% of the study population. The adenoid thickness in the preschooler group was (1.26±0.26) cm, higher than that in the female group (1.15±0.20) cm (P=0.025). The upper airway length (5.89±0.60) cm and the ratio of upper airway length/mental spine-slope length (0.73±0.08) in males were higher than those in females [(5.31±0.45) cm and 0.67±0.07, respectively, P<0.05]. There was no gender difference in other upper airway parameters among different age groups (all P values>0.05). The length of upper airway, mental spine-slope, tongue, soft palate, the width of nasopharyngeal cavity and the thickness of adenoids were positively correlated with age (r=0.932, 0.912, 0.898, 0.705, 0.734 and 0.168, respectively), all P values<0.05. Adenoid thickness was positively correlated with age from birth to age 5 years (r=0.603, P<0.001), and negatively correlated with age after age 6 years (r=-0.259, P=0.001). Conclusion: There are gender differences in the development of upper airway structure in children of different ages.