Snoring and CT imaging

Abstract

Study objectives: To identify upper-airway changes in snoring using CT scanning and to clarify the snoring mechanism. Participants: Forty patients classified into nonsnoring (14), moderately loud (13) and loud snoring (13) groups. Methods: from CT images, measurements of spaces and structures at different pharyngeal levels were taken, impaired nasal breathing was noted and the pharyngeal narrowing (ratio between the area at the hard palate level and the narrowest one) calculated. Results: In snoring persons pharyngeal narrowing (p _ 0.0015) was greater and also proportional to the loudness of snoring (p _ 0.0016) and the length of soft palate with uvula (p _ 0.0173) was longer in comparison to non-snoring persons. Impaired nasal breathing was related (p _ 0.029) to loud snoring group only. Conclusions: Snoring is associated with greater pharyngeal narrowing. It indicates that Bernoulli principle plays major role in snoring. The key structure is soft palate: it defines the constriction and is sucked into vibrating by negative pressure which develops at that site. Constriction presents also an obstruction to breathing. Soft palate should therefore be the target for causal treatment of snoring. Other obstacles in the upper airway could not be confirmed as important for the development of snoring, although they may increase its loudness and potentially play a role in obstructive sleep apneas.