title: Prevalence of upper airway tumors and cysts among patients who snore.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Sleep specialists usually do not pay much attention to the upper airway in patients who snore, because they can make the diagnosis of sleep-disordered breathing without performing nasopharyngeal endoscopy if they have the Epworth Sleepiness Scale scores and the results of polysomnography. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of benign and malignant tumors and cysts in the upper airway in patients who snore.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective multicenter trial was performed in 4 sleep laboratories. Adult male and female patients whose chief complaint on their first visit was witnessed snoring were enrolled in this study. All of the patients were evaluated by otolaryngologists using nasopharyngeal endoscopy to detect organic diseases in the upper airway.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among 2,923 patients, 2 patients had malignant tumors, 5 had benign tumors, and 2 had cysts in the upper airway. The prevalence of upper airway benign and malignant tumors and cysts among adult male and female patients was 0.24%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Routine detailed nasopharyngeal endoscopy should be carried out in each institution so as not to overlook organic diseases in the upper airway among patients who snore.
authors: Department of Otolaryngology, Teikyo University School of Medicine, 2-11-1 Kaga, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-8605, Japan.
authors: Masaaki
authors: M
authors: Suzuki
authors: Hanako
authors: H
authors: Saigusa
authors: Shintaro
authors: S
authors: Chiba
authors: Tadahiko
authors: T
authors: Hoshino
authors: Makito
authors: M
authors: Okamoto
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D004724:Endoscopy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012913:Snoring / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology