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Analysis of Inspiratory Flow Shapes in Patients With Partial Upper-Airway Obstruction During Sleep^*

^* From the Turku Centre for Computer Science (Mr. Aittokallio); the Department of Mathematical Sciences (Dr. Nevalainen), University of Turku; the Department of Pulmonary Diseases and Clinical Allergology (Dr. Saaresranta), Turku University Central Hospital; the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (Dr. Polo-Kantola), Turku University Central Hospital; and Department of Physiology (Dr. Polo), University of Turku, Turku, Finland.

Correspondence to: Tero Aittokallio, MSc, Turku Centre for Computer Science, Lemminkäisenkatu 14 A, 20520 Turku, Finland; e-mail: tero.aittokallio{at}cs.utu.fi

Study objective: To study the spectrum of inspiratory flow signal shapes in patients with partial upper airway obstruction during sleep.

Design: We identified seven different inspiratory flow shapes and determined their frequencies in two groups of patients (10 postmenopausal women and 19 men after surgical treatment for sleep apnea) and in 9 control subjects.

Setting: Sleep research unit, Department of Physiology, University of Turku, Finland.

Measurements and results: Nasal flow was recorded with nasal prongs. The shape analyses were performed with an automated attribute grammar recognizer. The inspiratory flow-shape distributions differed significantly between patients and control subjects. The flow shapes were also different between postmenopausal women and men after uvulopalatopharyngoplasty.

Conclusions: The differences in the inspiratory flow-shape distributions between the control subjects and the two patient groups suggest that the upper airways behave differently in the three study groups. Automated inspiratory flow-shape analysis seems to be a promising tool to distinguish patient groups with different upper airway function to be treated with different treatment alternatives. The physiologic correlates of each flow-shape class remain to be elucidated.

Key Words: flow limitation • menopause • obstructive sleep apnea syndrome • pattern recognition • snoring • uvulopalatopharyngoplasty

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