Craniofacial deficiencies in 3-dimensions and their relationships to airway volume have been studied in the past. Much research has investigated maxillary transverse, sagittal or vertical dimensions with correlations to airway volume. Similarly, mandibular characteristics such as its anteroposterior or vertical dimensions have been analyzed. To the author’s current knowledge, there have been limited studies which investigated the relationship between transverse dimensions of the mandible and airway volume. The objectives of our study were to investigate: 1) If there is a significant association between mandibular transverse dimensions and airway volume, mandibular anteroposterior or vertical measurements in the pediatric population. 2) If mandibular anteroposterior and vertical measurements correlated to airway volume. 3) If an OSA symptomatic group had any significant differences in mandibular morphologies, pediatric sleep questionnaire (PSQ), Apnea-hypoxia index (AHI), or Respiratory Disturbance index (RDI), compared to an asymptomatic control group in the pediatric population. This was a cohort, retrospective, correlational study comprised of 22 males, and 14 females (Mean age of 6.8 ± 2.8, range: 2 to 13 years old). Digital CBCT images were acquired from a single private pediatric practice. Utilizing Mimics v.21 analytical software, airway was measured and segmented into right nasal cavity (RNC), left nasal cavity (LNC), nasopharynx (NP), oropharynx (OP) and hypopharynx (HP). Mandibular traits in sagittal, vertical and transverse dimensions were analyzed to see if correlations exist with airway volume, PSQ, AHI, or RDI scores. Differences were also evaluated between symptomatic and asymptomatic groups. Results revealed that asymptomatic patients had significantly greater width between the right and left gonions (Trans-Go) as compared to symptomatic patients. Within each group, Trans-Go was shown to have significant positive correlations to total airway volume, corpus length and ramus height (p < 0.05). There are significant correlations between mandibular transverse dimension and total airway volume, sagittal, and vertical dimensions of the mandible. There may also be transverse differences between symptomatic and asymptomatic patients for sleep disorders in the pediatric population.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/41347 |
| Date | 29 July 2020 |
| Creators | Li, Lok Ching |
| Contributors | Parsi, Goli |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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