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To determine whether mucosal sensory dysfunction is present at multiple upper-airway sites in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

Physiologic testing of consecutive patients with OSA and nonsnoring controls.

University hospital sleep center.

Thirty-nine subjects with OSA and 17 controls.

Endoscopic testing was used to determine sensory detection thresholds for air-pressure pulses delivered to the oropharynx, velopharynx, hypopharynx, and larynx (aryepiglottic eminence). The air-pulse stimulus intensity required to elicit the protective laryngeal adductor reflex was also determined.

There was a significant impairment in sensory detection threshold for OSA versus control subjects in the oropharynx …