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Obstructive sleep apnea is associated with changes in upper airway morphology and sleep disturbances from transient nocturnal hypoxemia and hypoxia. The latter adversely affects brain metabolism and neurologic function. MRI is the only non-invasive modality cable of concurrently visualize airway architecture and quantify neurometabolism during sleep. We present an interleaved pulse sequence and demonstrate its ability to detect metabolic response and airway anatomic alteration from a swallowing apnea (SA). Although airway anatomy during SA is distinctively different from a breath-hold apnea both result in similar physiological responses in terms of cerebral blood flow and venous blood oxygenation.
Langham et al. (Wed,) studied this question.