The role of the external nasal measures of patients with sleep disordered breathing in determining disease severity

Authors : Mustafa Avcu, Mehmet Metin, Tufan Ulcay, Zeynel Abidin Erbesler

Pages : 178-186

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Publication Date : 2019-12-10

Article Type : Research

Abstract :Objectives: In this study, we aimed to investigate the influence of nasal anthropometric measurements on severity of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome OSAS and to assess the correlation between nasal anthropometric measurements and severity of OSAS after excluding internal factors causing nasal obstruction. Patients and Methods: A total of 241 consecutive patients 181 males, 60 females; mean age 50.3±11.3 years; range, 18 to 65 years with daily sleepiness and/or snoring complaints between February 1st 2018 and December 15th 2018 were included in the study. All patients were divided into eight groups as obese and non-obese according to the disease severity and BMI values. Results: According to the obese and non-obese groups, none of the anthropometric measurements in the obese group were correlated with OSAS, while only nasal width r: 0.282, p=0.001 , nasal tip height r: 0.235, p=0.008 , and alar-pronasal distance r: 0.156, p=0.031 were found to be correlated in the non-obese patient groups. Linear regression analysis of variables which appeared to correlate with the OSAS severity revealed that no variables except for age and BMI significantly contributed to the OSAS severity in the obese group. For the non-obese group, in addition to age and BMI values, nasal width significantly contributed to the disease severity. Conclusion: Although there are many factors in the etiology of OSAS, no external nasal anatomic measurement, except for the nasal width, seems to be correlated with the disease severity.
Keywords : External nasal anatomy, nasal anthropometry, obstructive sleep apnea