Comparison of Ricketts analysis and Downs-Northwestern analysis for the evaluation of obstructive sleep apnea cephalograms

To determine which analysis is suitable to examine the dentofacial skeletal pattern characteristics of the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS). we took lateral cephalograms of 34 Japanese OSAS patients and 34 Japanese non -OSAS controls. By Ricketts analysis, we found significant differences betw een OSAS patients and non-OSAS controls on facial axis, lower facial height and total facial height, which showed that Japanese OSAS patients have dol ico facial pat terns. However, by Downs-Northwestern analysis. we did not f ind any significant difference between OSAS patients and non-OSAS controls using the same cephalograms as the Ricketts analysis.