Correlação entre morfologia craniofacial de pais e a presença de apneia obstrutiva do sono em seus filhos

Abstract

Correlation between parental craniofacial morphology and presence of obstructive sleep apnea in their children

Objective: To detect which patterns of craniofacial morphology of parents influence the presence of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in children, using facial photography as an evaluation method. The study hypothesis is that there are changes in the craniofacial morphology of parents linked to OSA, which are associated with OSA diagnosis in children and its severity. Methods: Forty-seven children and their parents underwent clinical examination with data on tonsil size, Mallampati index and measurement of weight and height; polysomnography; videonasolaryngoscopy and facial photography. Descriptive analyses performed the characterization of the studied population. Multiple linear regression was used to evaluate the parents' independent variables with the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of the children. Results: The craniofacial measurements of the mothers, namely, Mallampati index (p=0.03), and conversely, the height of the middle third of the face (p=0.00) and the fathers, labial proportion (p=0, 05) and cervicomental angle (p=0.04) were linearly correlated with the increase in the children's AHI. The coefficient of determination in the mothers' evaluation was 0.27, and in the evaluation of the fathers, it was 0.20. Conclusion: The results suggest that the facial measurements of the parents showed a linear correlation with the severity of OSA in their children, demonstrating the importance of the heritability of the craniofacial morphology in the constitution of the OSA phenotype. Therefore, assessing the craniofacial morphology of the parents of children with suspected sleep-disordered breathing may help to detect craniofacial alterations associated with OSA in their children. Early intervention and treatment of causal factors can prevent the child from becoming an apneic adult, with all the implications of the disease on quality of life.