In this issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology, Kairaitis et al. (9) examine the control of pharyngeal extraluminal tissue pressure by mandibular advancement and jaw position. Utilizing a novel approach for measuring peripharyngeal tissue pressures, they demonstrated that mandibular advancement decreased tissue pressures anterior and lateral to the airway lumen. Decreases in the lateral per...

The goal of this study was to determine how high-frequency inspiratory sounds (HFIS) are generated by sleeping children with obstructive sleep-disordered breathing (OSDB). We hypothesized that HFIS are generated when a high-velocity jet of air, generated by a narrowed upper airway, induces the upper airway to act as a resonating chamber. We tested two predictions of this hypothesis: 1) the uppe...

The upper airway muscles play an important role in maintaining upper airway collapsibility, and the incidence of sleep-disordered breathing increases with age. We hypothesize that the increase in airway collapsibility with increasing age can be linked to changes in upper airway muscle mechanics and structure. Eight young (Y: 6 mo) and eight old (O: 30 mo) Fischer 344 rats were anesthetized and ...

We describe a case where a patient presented with acute angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACE-I) induced angioedema without signs or symptoms of upper airway edema beyond lip swelling. Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) was used as an initial diagnostic test and identified left-sided subglottic upper airway edema that was immediately confirmed with indirect fiberoptic laryngoscopy. ACE-I i...

BACKGROUND Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is one of the most common public health problems in adults. Patients with OSA are prone for excessive adipose tissue deposition in the neck, which in turn, increases the upper airway narrowing. Of the imaging modalities available for assessing the upper airway, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is found to be useful technique for defining soft tissue abn...

INTRODUCTION Studies that assess the upper airways in sleep-related breathing disorders have been performed only in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome who seek medical attention. Therefore, in addition to the need for population studies, there are no data on the orofacial-cervical physical examination in subjects with upper airway resistance syndrome. OBJECTIVES To compare the oro...

Maintenance of a patent airway is the most important aspect of the safe administration of anesthesia in children. However, in spontaneously breathing, anesthetized children, upper airway obstruction is a frequent problem (1) and failure to maintain a patent airway can rapidly result in hypoxemia, bradycardia or even cardiac arrest. Upper airway narrowing is most likely to appear in pharyngeal s...

IN OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA (OSA), REPETITIVE COLLAPSE OF THE UPPER AIRWAY DURING SLEEP RESULTS IN MULTIPLE EPISODES OF HYPOXEMIA AND subsequent repetitive arousals that fragment sleep. These events and the associated autonomic and neurohumoral disturbances are considered to lead to the many symptoms and signs of OSA and contribute to the long-term morbidity.1,2 The repetitive arousals are a dom...

PURPOSE To evaluate the upper airway dimensions of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and control subjects using a cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) unit commonly applied in clinical practice in order to assess airway dimensions in the same fashion as that routinely employed in a clinical setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a retrospective analysis utilizing existing CBCT scans to evaluate ...

introduction: the diagnosis of foreign bodies in the upper aerodigestive tract is usually straightforward but sometimes it can be delayed or the location of esophageal and upper airway foreign bodies can be mistakenly interchanged.  case report: we present two interesting cases that caused diagnostic challenges which could have led to serious complications if a greater delay in diagnosis had oc...