Electron Microscopic Study of Pharyngeal Tissue in Sleep Apnea Syndrome

Song, Tae Hyun; Cha, Young Jin; Lee, Byung Don; Chang, Hyuck Soon; Kang, Ju Won; Jin, So Young

doi:10.35420/jcohns.1994.5.2.253

J Clin Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 1994; 5(2):253-260

pISSN: 1225-0244, eISSN: 2713-833X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35420/jcohns.1994.5.2.253

원저

수면무호흡증 환자에서의 인두조직의 전자현미경적 연구

송태현¹, 차영진¹, 이병돈¹, 장혁순¹, 강주원¹, 진소영^*

Electron Microscopic Study of Pharyngeal Tissue in Sleep Apnea Syndrome

Tae Hyun Song¹, Young Jin Cha¹, Byung Don Lee¹, Hyuck Soon Chang¹, Ju Won Kang¹, So Young Jin^*

Author Information & Copyright ▼

¹순천향대학교 의과대학 이비인후과학교실

^*해부병리학교실

¹Department of Otolaryngology, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Seoul, Korea

^*Anatomic Pathology, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Seoul, Korea

© Copyright 1994 The Busan, Ulsan, Gyeoungnam Branch of Korean Society of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: May 31, 2020

ABSTRACT

The pathophysiologic changes that result in acquisition of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) are poorly understood. To identify the influence of increased pharyngeal compliance and collapsibility to the pharyngeal tissue in OSAS, transverse sections of the uvula were compared using electron microscope from 10 OSAS patients group and 4 normal control group.

The obtained results were as follows:

Muscle and nerve fibers in controls group show normal appearance.
In OSAS patients group, there were various degrees of changes in muscle and nerve fibers such as hypertrophy or atrophy and degeneration of muscle fibers and axonal degeneration and destruction of myelin sheath in nerve fibers.

These changes may have multiple potential effects on upper airway but the actual etiology of these changes and the effect on the development of apnea will require further investigation.

Keywords: Sleep apnea syndrome; UPPP; Electron microscopy