The anatomical states of the oral cavity and pharynx during mouth breathing in children with adenoid hypertrophy and in adults confirmed the speculation that mouth breathing is disadvantageous compared with nose breathing. In addition, comparison of the anatomical state between wakefulness and sleep in normal adults showed slight depression of the tongue root and slight narrowing of the orophar...

The interest in paediatric sleep disorders over the last few decades has had its main focus on the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) - healthy infants who go to sleep and never wake up again. Overall, this is the most dramatic form of paediatric sleep disordered breathing. By contrast, classical presentations of sleep disordered breathing in children, such as snoring and obstructive sleep apn...

The article by Bixler et al in this edition of Hypertension1 adds to a growing body of evidence that risk factors associated with abdominal obesity in adults, namely, sleepdisordered breathing (apnea-hypopnea), occur in children as well. Specifically, sleep-disordered breathing appeared to be more strongly associated with waist circumference, a surrogate marker for abdominal obesity, than with ...