# Ultrasound and Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Tongue in Obstructive Sleep Apnoea
## 3 Results
### Examination of the Tongue between the Two Genders in OSA  
The US and MRI tongue parameters depending on the gender in the OSA group are shown in Table 2.  
Figure 2: (**A,D**) sagittal, (**B**) coronal, (**C**) axial T1 TSE MRI scans showing the anteroposterior, axial, coronal, sagittal, and midsagittal diameters, and also the calculation of Fat% (taken from our data). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Gender**} \\ \hline  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Men**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Women**} \\  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**(n = 53)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**(n = 11)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**_p_-Value**} \\ \hline \multicolumn{4}{c}{Tongue US examinations} \\ \hline Axial diameter during MM (cm) & 5.13 \(\pm\) 0.67 & 4.74 \(\pm\) 0.62 & 0.0749 \({}^{*}\) \\ \hline Volume (cm\({}^{3}\)) & 53.96 \(\pm\) 15.88 & 44.64 \(\pm\) 11.28 & 0.0697 \({}^{*}\) \\ \hline Volume during MM (cm\({}^{3}\)) & 48.41 \(\pm\) 9.39 & 42.99 \(\pm\) 7.24 & 0.0769 \({}^{*}\) \\ \hline \multicolumn{4}{c}{Tongue MRI examinations} \\ \hline Coronal diameter (cm) & 4.96 \(\pm\) 0.40 & 4.32 \(\pm\) 0.28 & 0.0798 \({}^{*}\) \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: US and MRI parameters of the tongue in male and female patients. Parameters show the mean \(\pm\) SD values. \({}^{*}\) indicates the significant difference at \(p\) < 0.1 Only significantly different parameters are shown in the table. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Control Group**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**OSA Patients**} \\  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**(n = 36)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**(n = 64)**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**_p_-Value**} \\ \hline Gender (men/women) & 21/15 & 53/11 & 0.000 *** \\ \hline BMI (kg/m\({}^{2}\)) & 23.14 \(\pm\) 3.87 & 30.99 \(\pm\) 2.33 & 0.000 *** \\ \hline Age (years) & 38.13 \(\pm\) 12.14 & 44.40 \(\pm\) 10.90 & 0.000 *** \\ \hline \multicolumn{4}{c}{Tongue US measurements} \\ \hline Coronal diameter (cm) & 4.98 \(\pm\) 0.58 & 5.25 \(\pm\) 0.86 & 0.0565 \({}^{*}\) \\ \hline Axial diameter (cm) & 4.65 \(\pm\) 0.70 & 4.99 \(\pm\) 0.91 & 0.0058 *** \\ \hline Sagittal diameter (cm) & 7.20 \(\pm\) 0.75 & 7.33 \(\pm\) 1.12 & 0.0225 \({}^{**}\) \\ \hline Volume (cm\({}^{3}\)) & 45.27 \(\pm\) 12.08 & 52.36 \(\pm\) 15.52 & 0.0001 *** \\ \hline Coronal diameter during MM (cm) & 4.88 \(\pm\) 0.66 & 5.19 \(\pm\) 0.55 & 0.0029 *** \\ \hline Axial diameter during MM (cm) & 4.73 \(\pm\) 0.67 & 5.06 \(\pm\) 0.67 & 0.0063 *** \\ \hline Sagittal diameter during MM (cm) & 6.65 \(\pm\) 0.57 & 6.90 \(\pm\) 0.73 & 0.0579 \({}^{*}\) \\ \hline Volume during MM (cm\({}^{3}\)) & 40.24 \(\pm\) 8.09 & 47.48 \(\pm\) 9.24 & 0.0000 *** \\ \hline \multicolumn{4}{c}{Tongue MRI examinations} \\ \hline Anteroposterior diameter (cm) & 7.127 \(\pm\) 0. 66 & 7.665 \(\pm\) 0.643 & 0.000 *** \\ \hline Coronal diameter (cm) & 4.57 \(\pm\) 0.48 & 4.84 \(\pm\) 0.45 & 0.006 *** \\ Volume (cm\({}^{3}\)) & 58.82 \(\pm\) 13.18 & 67.00 \(\pm\) 12.54 & 0.137 \\ \hline Area midsagittal (cm\({}^{2}\)) & 25.23 \(\pm\) 3.69 & 28.06 \(\pm\) 3.3 & 0.001 *** \\ \hline Fat midsagittal (cm\({}^{2}\)) & 8.45 \(\pm\) 1.72 & 9.19 \(\pm\) 1.63 & 0.036 \({}^{**}\) \\ \hline \multicolumn{4}{c}{Tongue fat \%} & 33 \(\pm\) 4.00 & 33 \(\pm\) 5.00 & 0.618 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Patients’ basic demographic data and US and MRI results according to the AHI classification. The parameters show the mean \(\pm\) SD values. *** indicates the significant difference at \(p\) < 0.01 level, whereas ** the significant difference at \(p\) < 0.05 level and * the significant difference at \(p\) < 0.1. The correlation between AHI and MRI parameters is remarkably different, based on the different numbers of male and female patients examined and the differences in the standard deviations (Table 3). When possible, linear estimations were applied, and sigmoid estimation was only used in the cases when a better outcome using sigmoid curves was suspected.