MONITORING NASAL AND ORAL AIRWAY PATENCY

The hypothesis that upper airway breathing behaviors generally follow the rules of a physiologic regulating system implies the existence of sensors that monitor the airway environment, The purpose of this study was to assess the sensitivity of the monitoring system to sudden chan ges in airway patency in healthy, adult subjects, An instrument capabl e of changing airway dimensions in about 10 ms was used to assess psyc hophysical recognition and physiologic responses to sudden changes in airway size, Our results indicate that psychophysical recognition of c hange in patency occurred at a mean constriction area of 0.31 cm(2). T hese findings suggest that recognition of change in airway size occurs well before the airway becomes flow-limiting or severely obstructed.