TITLE:
Characterization of Upper Air Way Tract in Snoring and Non-Snoring Patients: A CT Based Study
AUTHORS:
Fathia Abd El Rahman Mohamed Alamin, Caroline Edward Ayad
KEYWORDS:
Snoring, Upper Air Way Tract, Computerized Tomography
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Radiology,
Vol.6 No.3,
August
5,
2016
ABSTRACT: Snoring is part of the spectrum of sleep disordered breathing. The patients with snoring should be evaluated for nasal airway obstruction. In this study, the upper air way tract was characterized in snoring patients and compared with none snoring using a quantify method for the corresponding anatomic upper air way (UA) parameters examined by Computerized Tomography (CT). Two hundred Asian patients undergoing CT scanning for head and neck were included and were divided into two groups (snoring group [n = 127] and non-snoring group [n = 73]) (mean age: 44.8 ± 15.9 years and 26.2 ± 7.0). Total 8 parameters were measured on sagital reconstructed CT images for each subject. The differences in neck circumference (NC), linear distance between mandibular plane and hyoid bone (Mp-H), upper airway length (UAL), the maximum thickness of the soft palate (SP max), soft palate length (PNS-U), linear distance between anterior and posterior nasal spine (ANS-PNS), retroglosal width (RS), retroplatal width (RP) between the snoring and non-snoring groups were compared statistically using independent sample t-test. Results showed that the NC, UAL, and SP max were significantly higher in snoring group; however RP was found to be significantly lower. Inferior positioning of hyoid bone gives longer measurement for MP-H. In snoring group UAL was found to be significantly different at p ≤ 0.000 between the two genders. All the measured variables showed no significant differences in respect to age. UA CT quantitative features play an important role in the characterization of the anatomy and are compared between snoring patients and non-snoring subjects.