Author(s)

Donghui Wei, Le Wang, Zhi Yu, Haimei Zhao, Ning Zhou, Jing Zhang, Jie Cao^*

Department of Respiratory and Critical Care, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China.

Objective: Obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSA) is a disease of obstructive apnea or hypopnea caused by a repeated partial or complete collapse of the upper airway during sleep. The inspiratory part of the flow-volume curve (F-V curve) can be used as an auxiliary means to evaluate upper airway obstruction in adults. This study is to evaluate the ability of the F-V curve to predict the OSA and explore inspiratory indicators related to airway obstruction during sleep. Methods: There were 332 patients included in this cross-sectional study, who were accompanied by snoring, daytime sleepiness and other symptoms, with suspicion of OSA. According to the nocturnal polysomnography, the subjects were distributed into mild to moderate OSA group, severe OSA group and non-OSA group. A pulmonary function test was used to collect the subjects’ spirometry and F-V curves. Results: There was no significant difference in a variety of indices derived from the F-V curve between OSA and normal subjects, including 25% inspiratory flow rate, middle inspiratory flow rate, 75% inspiratory flow rate, peak flow rate, and forced inspiratory flow rate in the first second. The pulmonary function parameters were significantly correlated with the weight, age and sex of the subjects. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the inspiratory curve of pulmonary function cannot evaluate the upper airway abnormalities in patients with obstructive apnea-hypopnea syndrome.

Apnea-Hypopnea Index, Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Pulmonary Function Test, Inspiratory Flow Volume Curve

Wei, D. , Wang, L. , Yu, Z. , Zhao, H. , Zhou, N. , Zhang, J. and Cao, J. (2023) Forced Inspiratory Flow Volume Curve in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea-Hypopnea Syndrome. International Journal of Clinical Medicine, 14, 260-273. doi: 10.4236/ijcm.2023.145022.