Anatomical balance of the upper airway in Japanese and Caucasian patients with obstructive sleep apnea

肥胖和颅面异常是阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停（OSA）患者的共同特征。颅面坚硬外壳（由牙列、颈椎、上颌骨和下颌骨组成）的大小与软组织数量(如：影响上呼吸道空间，参与OSA的发病机制。在本研究中，我们调查了OSA患者的这种解剖平衡在不同种族之间是否存在差异。在匹配性别（男性）、年龄和呼吸暂停低通气指数后，76例日本OSA患者和74例高加索OSA患者通过侧位脑电图进行了舌横截面积和颅面尺寸的二维盲测。比较两组间矢状舌大小、矢状上颌下颌尺寸和体重指数（BMI）。虽然白种人的身体质量指数明显高于日本人，但两种种族之间的舌头大小和上颌下颌尺寸没有差异。这些结果表明，在相同的OSA严重程度下，日本OSA患者和高加索OSA患者的解剖平衡没有差异。这可能部分解释了为什么日本人和白种人的阻塞性睡眠呼吸暂停患病率几乎相同。

Obesity and craniofacial abnormalities are common features of patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea(OSA). Anatomical balance between the size of the craniofacial rigid enclosure(formed by the dentitions, cervical vertebrae, maxilla, and mandible) and the amount of soft tissue(e. g. tongue) influences the upper airway space and is involved in the pathogenesis of OSA. In this study, we investigated whether this anatomical balance was different between races in OSA people. Blind measurements of tongue cross-sectional area and craniofacial dimensions were performed two dimensionally through lateral cephalograms in 76 Japanese patients with OSA and 74 Caucasian OSA subjects after matching gender(male), age, and apnea hypopnea index. Sagittal tongue size, sagittal maxillomandibular dimensions, and body mass index(BMI) were compared between the groups. While BMI was significantly higher in Caucasians than in Japanese patients, tongue size and maxillomandibular dimensions were not different between the races. These findings suggest that anatomical balance does not differ between Japanese OSA people and Caucasian OSA persons under the same OSA severity. This may partly account for the reason why prevalence of OSA are almost the same between Japanese and Caucasians.