2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Videoendoscopic diagnosis for predicting the response to the oral appliance therapy in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21791890
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Prosthetic dentistry
Research Institution	Osaka University
Principal Investigator	OKUNO Kentaro Osaka University, 歯学部附属病院, 医員 (50420451)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2010
Keywords	歯学 / 医療・福祉 / ストレス / 診断 / 睡眠障害
Research Abstract	Predicting which patients will respond to oral appliance (OA) therapy in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is not yet possible, although there are several studies of practice parameters predicting treatment outcome. We report herein additional data and findings for the purpose of predicting OA treatment outcome using nasendscopy. These results suggest that nasendoscopy of the velopharynx is more helpful than examining the oro-hypopharynx to predict oral appliance treatment outcome. Even severe OSA patients with clear airways that widened by advancing the mandible responded positively to OA therapy ; on the contrary, patients with narrowed airways that did not widen by advancing the mandible did not respond to OA therapy.