ABSTRACT

Sleep apnea syndrome is characterized with the temporary obstruction of the upper airway space during sleep. In the treatment of this syndrome, the accurate determination of the airway obstruction, the understanding of the obstruction mechanism and the different anatomic components are the basic points. Thus, the determination of morphological differences between normal subjects and subjects with OSAS is of great importance. The aim of this present study was to evaluate upper airway space in adult subjects without facial deformity and obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. In this study, lateral cephalometric films were taken from 77 subjects, 39 females and 38 males, with the head in a natural position. In order to evaluate the different levels of upper airway space, 25 measurements were used. The differences between the sexes were tested by Student's t-test. The relationship among the variables were assessed by the Pearson correlation analysis. From the lateral cephalograms it was observed that linear measurements were larger in males than females and that there was a correlation between some variables.