Breathing pauses during sleep: can a non-invasive ENT examination help identify subjects at risk in epidemiological settings?

In patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) anatomic and functional upper airway abnormalities are frequent and severe. Invasive methods are used to identify and quantitate the obstruction, to precisely locate its site, etc. as part of pre-treatment or of preoperative evaluations. These methods...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medical hypotheses 2001-06, Vol.56 (6), p.653-656
Main Authors: Teculescu, D.B., Montaut-Verient, B., Hannhart, B., Virion, J.-M., Cornette, A., Michaely, J.-P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Humans
Jaw Abnormalities - physiopathology
Medical sciences
Non tumoral diseases
Otolaryngology
Otorhinolaryngology (head neck, general aspects and miscellaneous)
Otorhinolaryngology. Stomatology
Palate, Soft - anatomy & histology
Physical Examination
Respiration
Risk Factors
Sleep - physiology
Sleep Apnea Syndromes - epidemiology
Sleep Apnea Syndromes - physiopathology
Uvula - physiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In patients with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) anatomic and functional upper airway abnormalities are frequent and severe. Invasive methods are used to identify and quantitate the obstruction, to precisely locate its site, etc. as part of pre-treatment or of preoperative evaluations. These methods (lateral skull radiographs, computerized tomography, MRI, fibroscopies, etc) are too expensive and too invasive to be utilized in field surveys. To the classical sleep questionnaires and anthropometric measurements, some simple nose-throat examinations, easily accepted by the volunteers in a population study, could add useful information for the identification of the subjects at risk for sleep-disordered breathing. The present paper is a review of these examinations and of their utility.
ISSN:0306-9877
1532-2777
DOI:10.1054/mehy.2000.1283