Dynamic Alterations of Tongue in Sleep Apnoea Hypopnea Syndrome During Sleep

UMRI was undertaken on the upper airway in 21 OSAHS patients and 20 normal people after being deprived of sleep for one night. A series of midline sagittal images of the upper airway were obtained. The dynamic alterations of the tongue size and the distance from the tongue to X axis (an extended line from the anterior nasal spine to posterior nasal spine) and Y axis (a perpendicular line from the center of the pituitary to the X axis) were measured.Statistical comparisons between pairs of means were performed via t-tests using Spss10 software. A probability level of p\<0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.