Suto Y, Matsuo T, Kato T, Hori I, Inoue Y, Ogawa S, Suzuki T, Yamada M, Ohta Y
Department of Radiology, Tottori University Faculty of Medicine, Yonago, Japan.
AJR Am J Roentgenol. 1993 Feb;160(2):311-4. doi: 10.2214/ajr.160.2.8424340.
Sleep apnea is often caused by obstruction of the pharyngeal airway. The goal of this study was to use ultrafast MR imaging to examine the pharyngeal airway in patients with sleep apnea and to evaluate the usefulness of this technique for localizing the site of obstruction.
Fifteen patients with sleep apnea and five healthy volunteers underwent ultrafast MR imaging while awake and during sleep induced with hydroxyzine hydrochloride. Sequential midline sagittal images of the pharynx were obtained and displayed in the cine mode.
Patients with sleep apnea were found to have sites of pharyngeal abnormality that were not present in healthy volunteers. Nine sites of narrowing in seven patients (47%) were detected with the patient awake; 21 sites of obstruction in 13 patients (87%) were diagnosed with the patient asleep. Six patients showed only one obstruction, and seven had several obstructions: five had obstructions at the velum palatinum and at the oropharynx; one had obstructions at the velum palatinum, oropharynx, and hypopharynx; one had obstructions at the velum palatinum and the hypopharynx. The sites of narrowing during wakefulness and the sites of obstruction during sleep were the same in only four (31%) of the patients with pharyngeal airway obstruction.
Ultrafast MR imaging is useful for localizing the sites of pharyngeal airway obstruction in patients with sleep apnea.
睡眠呼吸暂停常由咽气道阻塞引起。本研究的目的是使用超快磁共振成像检查睡眠呼吸暂停患者的咽气道，并评估该技术对阻塞部位定位的实用性。
15例睡眠呼吸暂停患者和5名健康志愿者在清醒状态下以及在盐酸羟嗪诱导睡眠期间接受超快磁共振成像检查。获取咽部连续的中线矢状面图像并以电影模式显示。
发现睡眠呼吸暂停患者存在健康志愿者中不存在的咽部异常部位。7例患者（47%）在清醒时检测到9个狭窄部位；13例患者（87%）在睡眠时诊断出21个阻塞部位。6例患者仅表现为一处阻塞，7例有多处阻塞：5例在软腭和口咽处有阻塞；1例在软腭、口咽和下咽处有阻塞；1例在软腭和下咽处有阻塞。在咽气道阻塞患者中，仅4例（31%）清醒时的狭窄部位与睡眠时的阻塞部位相同。
超快磁共振成像有助于定位睡眠呼吸暂停患者的咽气道阻塞部位。
