Oral airway resistance during wakefulness in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea
Department of
Respiratory Medicine, Westmead Hospital, and University of Sydney, NSW
2145, Australia
Correspondence to: Dr T C Amis, Department of Respiratory Medicine, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia
Received 15 July 1998; Returned to authors 6 October 1998; Revised version received 4 December 1998; Accepted for publication 27 January 1999
BACKGROUND
Patients
with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) have a number of upper airway
structural abnormalities which may influence the resistance of the oral
airway to airflow. There have been no systematic studies of the flow
dynamics of the oral cavity in such patients.
METHODSInspiratory
oral airway resistance to airflow (RO) was measured in 13 awake patients with OSA in both the upright and supine positions (neck
position constant). Each subject breathed via a mouthpiece while the
nasal airway was occluded with a nasal mask.
RESULTSIn the upright
position the mean (SE) RO was 1.26 (0.19) cm H2O/l/s (at 0.4 l/s) which increased to 2.01 (0.43) cm H2O/l/s when supine (p<0.05, paired
t test). The magnitude of this change correlated negatively with the respiratory disturbance index
(r = -0.60, p = 0.03).
CONCLUSIONIn awake
patients with OSA RO is normal when upright but abnormally
raised when in the supine position.
Keywords: obstructive sleep apnoea; oral airway resistance; body position
© 1999 by Thorax
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