Airway and soft tissue dimensions from magnetic resonance imaging in patients with obstructive sleep apnoea during sleep and wakefulness and in healthy subjects
| Parameter | Healthy subjects | Awake patients | Asleep patients |
| Subjects | 8 | 17 | 15 |
| Velopharynx | |||
| Area (mm2) | |||
| Maximum | 121.9±7.9 | 85.9±49.9 | 100.7±75.9 |
| 120 (113–138) | 70 (19–173) | 78 (28–316) | |
| Minimum | 103.2±10.0 | 35.3±23.5 | 15.1±19.9 |
| 104 (83–113) | 27 (0–83) | 0 (0–66) | |
| AP diameter mm | |||
| Maximum | 8.7±3.2 | 8.2±2.4 | 8.9±4.1 |
| 9 (6–11) | 8 (5–15) | 8 (4–18) | |
| Minimum | 7.4±1.1 | 4.9±3.4 | 2.5±3.2 |
| 7.5 (6–9) | 5 (0–9) | 0 (0–8) | |
| Lateral diameter mm | |||
| Maximum | 16.4±2.3 | 10.6±5.5 | 11.5±5.9 |
| 16 (13–21) | 10 (2–25) | 11 (3–23) | |
| Minimum | 13.9±2.6 | 6.4±2.6 | 3.1±3.8 |
| 14 (10–19) | 6 (0–13) | 0 (0–12) | |
| AP/Lateral diameter ratio | |||
| Maximum | 0.53 | 0.77 | 0.76 |
| Minimum | 0.52 | 0.76 | 0.80 |
| Lateral pharyngeal wall | |||
| Width mm | |||
| Maximum | 18.7±3.6 | 24.6±8.1 | 27.4±9.1 |
| 19 (14–24) | 23 (11–43) | 25 (10–46) | |
| Minimum | 22.4±3.6 | 27.9±7.2 | 36.9±10.0 |
| 21.5 (18–30) | 26 (19–44) | 35 (18–52) | |
| Parapharyngeal fatpad mm2 | 113.7±36.3 | 175.2±63.2 | |
| 100 (92–200) | 134 (43–274) | ||
| Soft plate area mm2 | 322.1±23.1 | 446±135.1 | |
| 315 (299–360) | 441 (194–696) | ||
| Soft palate length mm | 30.7±1.7 | 39.1±4.9 | |
| 30.5 (28–34) | 40 (29–48) | ||
Data are expressed as mean±sd, and also as medians (ranges).
two patients could not fall asleep during MRI studies
AP: anterior-posterior