Assessment of airway dimensions in skeletal Class I malocclusion patients with various vertical facial patterns: A cephalometric study in a sample of the Saudi population. Journal of orthodontic science OBJECTIVE:To compare airway widths among skeletal Class I malocclusion patients with different vertical facial patterns. MATERIAL AND METHODS:A total of 103 lateral cephalograms of skeletal Class I patients (mean age of 20 ± 2.3 years) with no history of orthodontic treatment, trauma, facial syndromes, or nasopharyngeal dysfunction were included. Based on the Frankfort-mandibular plane angle measurements, the sample was divided into three groups: low-angle, high-angle, and normal-angle groups. Upper and lower pharyngeal airway widths were measured as described by McNamara. The analysis of variance test was performed to compare the means of groups. Pairwise comparisons were performed using Tukey's post-hoc test. Differences were considered statistically significant at < 0.05. RESULTS:ANOVA showed a significant mean difference between the groups for both the upper and lower airway widths with values of 0.011 and 0.003, respectively. Tukey Pairwise comparisons showed the upper airway width to be significantly narrower in the high-angle group compared to the normal-angle ( = 0.021) and low-angle groups ( = 0.013). Furthermore, the lower airway width in the high angle group was significantly narrower than the normal angle ( = 0.020) and low-angle groups ( = 0.017). There were no statistically significant differences between normal and low angle groups. CONCLUSIONS:The upper and lower pharyngeal widths in the Class I high-angle group were significantly narrower than those in the normal-angle and low-angle groups. 10.4103/jos.JOS_10_20

Upper airway morphological changes in obstructive sleep apnoea: effect of age on pharyngeal anatomy. Gao F,Li Y R,Xu W,An Y S,Wang H J,Xian J F,Han D M The Journal of laryngology and otology OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the upper airway morphology changes associated with ageing in adult Chinese patients with obstructive sleep apnoea. METHODS:A total of 124 male patients diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnoea by overnight polysomnography, who underwent upper airway computed tomography, were enrolled. The linear dimensions, cross-sectional area and volume of the upper airway region and the surrounding bony frame were measured. The association between ageing and upper airway morphology was analysed. RESULTS:Soft palate length, minimum cross-sectional area of the retroglossal region, lateral dimensions at the minimum cross-sectional area of the retropalatal and retroglossal regions, nasopharyngeal volume, and average cross-sectional area of the nasopharyngeal region were found to significantly increase with ageing in all patients, while the upper airway shape flattened with ageing. The volume of the retropalatal region increased with ageing among the patients with a body mass index of less than 24 kg/m2. The volume of parapharyngeal fat pad increased with ageing among patients with a body mass index greater than 28 kg/m2. CONCLUSION:A number of dimensional, cross-sectional and volumetric parameters of the pharynx increased with age, indicating that non-anatomical factors may play a more important role in the pathogenesis of obstructive sleep apnoea in aged patients. 10.1017/S0022215120000766