NCT06792045

Prediction of Tongue Base Obstruction During Sleep

Tongue Motor Functions Assessment As a Screening Tool for Obstructive Sleep Disordered Breathing in Children

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 48 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Université Catholique de Louvain · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 6 Years – 17 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This study investigates the hypothesis that, in children, tongue motor functions can predict both the anatomical site and the degree of upper airway obstruction contributing to obstructive sleep-disordered breathing.

Detailed description

Patients will be enrolled during their visit to the ENT physician. Subsequently, their tongue motor functions will be assessed during their pre-surgical appointment. Finally, they will undergo a drug-induced sleep endoscopy prior to their surgery.

Conditions

• Obstructive Sleep Disordered Breathing

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Physiotherapist assessment	* Tongue motor skills (Tongue pressures and tongue mobility, assessed through the Iowa Oral Performance Instrument and the Motricité Bucco-Linguo-Faciale tongue subscore, respectively) * Tongue restriction of mobility due to its frenulum (assessed through the Quick Tongue-Tie assessment tool) * Breathing Pattern (questionnaire from Abreu RR, Rocha RL, Lamounier JA, Guerra AF. Etiology, clinical manifestations and concurrent findings in mouth-breathing children. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2008;84(6):529-535.).
OTHER	ENT assessment	Data from the ENT appointment will be collected (e.g., sex, height, weight)
DIAGNOSTIC_TEST	Drug-Induced Sleep Endoscopy	A Drug-Induced Sleep Endoscopy will be performed, recorded, and evaluated by two blinded raters using the IPSES scale.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-04-01
• Primary completion: 2026-06-01
• Completion: 2026-09-01
• First posted: 2025-01-24
• Last updated: 2025-03-25

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Belgium