Inspiratory dilatory tongue movement, as measured with tagged MRI, and intramuscular neural drive in obstructive sleep apnoea patients

As measured by tagged MRI, inspiratory tongue dilatory movement might be useful to shed new light on mechanisms controlling upper airway dilation in obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). Nine healthy controls and 37 untreated OSA patients underwent an upper airway MRI scan and tongue intramuscular electromyography (EMG) assessment. Results identified two opposing relationships between inspiratory tongue movement and phasic EMG with variable impacts on upper airway function for controls and OSA patients. These results suggest that there are complex, and unexpected, relationships between neural drive and anterior tongue movement that suggest upper airway function cannot be predicted from EMG alone.