Snoring is associated with typical changes that can be revealed by CT scanning. Greater retropalatal and pharyngeal narrowing is the most important factor. The key structure in snoring is the soft palate, it causes a constriction and is sucked into vibrating by negative pressure that develops at this site. Its repetitive closures present an obstruction to breathing, producing the snoring sound, and should therefore be the target for surgical treatment of snoring. Obstacles in the upper airway that increase negative inspiratory pressure could not be confirmed as important for the development of snoring, although they may increase its loudness.
Soft palate-tongue contact and automatically calculated pharyngeal narrowing ratio (PNR), defined as a ratio between the airway cross-section at the hard palate level and the narrowest cross-section from the hard palate to the epiglottis, could assist in earlier identification of potential obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA) patients even on awake individuals.
CT imaging of retropalatal airway and a felxible fibre optic examination of the upper airway is more important and useful in planning Laser/Coblator surgery for OSA, than a PSG(sleep study).This helps surgeon to plan his surgery beforehand to get adequate airway and better result.