Evaluation of clinical parameters in patients with obstructive sleep apneaand possible correlation with the severity of the disease

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a complex disease whose etiology is multif actorial and incompletely understood. This article focuses on upper airway anatomy evaluation and the standardization of different physical findings i n patients with OSA and on the possible correlation of these physical findi ngs with the severity of the disease. All patients underwent a physical exa mination and polysomnography. The physical examination included tonsil size , modified Mallampati grade, neck circumference, lateral clinical craniofac ial assessment and body mass index (BMI). The study group consisted of 85 p atients. A statistically significant correlation between tonsil size and BM I and with the respiratory disturbance index (RDI) was detected (P = 0.004 and 0.03 respectively). Also patients with a craniofacial anomaly have a hi gher RDI level than the patients without this anomaly (P = 0.03). This stud y has identified some standardized physical findings for predicting the sev erity of OSA. We aim to benefit from these findings in the selection of a r ational treatment modality selection for patients with OSA.