Pilot Study of the Comparison of the Upper Airway Dynamics of Oronasal vs Nasal Masks With Positive Airway Pressure Treatment
Pilot Study of the Comparison of the Upper Airway Dynamics of Oronasal vs Nasal Masks With Positive Airway Pressure Treatment
Our group has recently found that the choice of positive airway pressure mask can significantly affect the pressure required to adequately treat sleep disordered breathing. The goal of this study is to visualize the upper airway in the retropalatal and retroglossal region while using both oronasal and nasal masks with CPAP in order to investigate differences in upper airway dynamics that may occur between these two mask types.
It is known that oronasal masks are not as effective at opening the upper airway compared to nasal only continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) masks in patients with sleep-disordered breathing. However, the physiological mechanism for this difference in efficacy is not known; although, it has been hypothesized to involve the retroglossal and/or retropalatal region of the upper airway. The objective of this study was to investigate differences in retroglossal and retropalatal anterior-posterior space with the use of oronasal vs. nasal CPAP masks using real-time cine magnetic resonance imaging (cMRI).
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