Dynamics of the Upper Airway & Application to Sleep Apnea

Raanan Arens¹, Michael L. Lipton², Sanghun Sin¹, Mark E. Wagshul²

Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome is a growing public health problem affecting children and adolescents, linked to the rising prevalence of obesity in these age groups. Adequate assessment of interventions requires an understanding of the underlying pathophysiology including the precise temporal and anatomic features of upper airway obstruction. We developed a retrospectively-gated, 3D sequence to capture the dynamics of airway anatomy across the respiratory cycle. The sequence allows high-quality reconstruction of the airway from a single dynamic and multi-plane reconstruction for assessing local changes in airway anatomy over time. Real-time dynamics of airway obstruction can be studied with such a technique.