Upper airway obstruction during adulthood is associated with cardiovascular morbidity; cardiovascular consequences of childhood upper airway obstruction are less well established. This study aimed at investigating the effect of childhood upper airway obstruction on respiratory sinus arrhythmia as a measure of cardiac vagal modulation during night-time sleep. Overnight polysomnography was conduc...

BACKGROUND There are important gaps in our understanding of the epidemiology and diagnosis of upper-airway obstruction. METHODS We examined the diagnostic value of several criteria for predicting upper-airway obstruction, and we measured the frequency of detecting upper-airway obstruction via quantitative and visual assessment of flow-volume loops. We studied 4 quantitative and 3 visual crite...

Chronic upper airway obstruction is frequently unrecognized or misdiagnosed as other conditions such as asthma or chronic airflow obstruction (CAO). Clinical features such as stridor may lead to diagnosis or it may initially be suspected from the results of pulmonary function tests (PFTs) ordered for another reason. We will review the physiology and the pulmonary function tests which are necess...

OBJECTIVE To determine the effectiveness of distraction osteogenesis of the mandible for relief of airway obstruction in neurologically impaired children. DESIGN Prospective pilot study. SETTING Tertiary care children's hospital. PATIENTS Five children with upper airway obstruction secondary to hypotonia were identified by airway endoscopy, pulse oximetry, and polysomnography. Four childr...

To determine how the presence of generalised airflow limitation due to chronic obstructive lung disease affects the recognition of simulated upper airway obstruction, a study was carried out in 12 patients (mean (SD) age 57 (7) years) with chronic obstructive lung disease (FEV1% predicted 53 (22), range 21-70) and 12 matched control subjects. Patients and control subjects performed maximal insp...