Research

Cellular

All pharyngeal soft tissues were larger with greater BMI, including the volumes of the tongue, soft palate, and lateral walls.

Increased soft tissue volume with higher BMI should be considered in OSA management.

StrongSupportsmedium confidence
All pharyngeal soft tissues were larger with greater BMI, including the volumes of the tongue (and tongue fat), soft palate (and soft palate fat), lateral walls, fat pads, epiglottis, and pterygoids.
Liyue Xu et al. · Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2025

Why this rating

The study's design and comprehensive measurements support this claim.

Source

The Relationship between Upper Airway Anatomy and Obesity in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Liyue Xu et al. · Annals of the American Thoracic Society · 2025

DOI 10.1513/annalsats.202410-1027oc

cross-sectional · n=583Cited 7×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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