OBJECTIVETo explore the relationship between children obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) and nasal diseases.

METHODSThree hundred and thirty-eight cases of pediatric OSAHS confirmed by polysomnography (PSG) had been enrolled as the treatment group, and divided into mild subgroup, moderate subgroup and severe subgroup according to the obstructive apnea index (OAI) and apnea hypoventilation index (AHI). The other two hundred and seven pediatric vocal cord nodule cases without OSAHS had been randomly selected as the control group. The retrospective analysis of upper respiratory tract infection frequency per year, expression levels of total IgE (tIgE) and allergen-specific IgE (sIgE), results of electronic nasopharyngoscope test and nasal sinus CT scans had been performed in all the pediatric cases. The data were analyzed by SPSS 17.0.

RESULTSThe upper respiratory tract infection frequency per year, ratio of cases with positive results of tIgE, ratio of cases with nasosinusitis, ratio of cases with narrow nasal cavity in the experiment group were respectively 8.7 ± 5.7, 60.9%, 79.9% and 50.0%, while those in the control group were respectively 4.4 ± 2.6, 32.8%, 12.1% and 6.3%, with significant difference between groups (t = 7.578,χ(2) value was 41.943, 237.704, 110.322, all P < 0.01). The multiple regression analysis indicated that, nasosinusitis and narrow nasal cavity were the two major risk factors of pediatric OSAHS (OR1 = 16.008, OR2 = 4.671, all P < 0.01), with combined effects (OR = 113.430, P < 0.01) . The rank test analysis in term of risk factors of severity of OSAHS had indicated that, prevalence of nasosinusitis and narrow nasal cavity were increased as rising severity of OSAHS (χ1(2) = 21.571, χ2(2) = 17.304, all P < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONSInfection and allergy are risk factors of pediatric OSAHS. Nasosinusitis and narrow nasal cavity are two major risk factors of pediatric OSAHS, which have positive relationship with the severity of OSAHS.