Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology, Faculty of Engineering Technology, University Malaysia Perlis,02100 Padang Besar, Perlis, Malaysia; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Electronic address: nik_nazri@um.edu.my
  • 3 Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Khalid University, PO Box 394, Abha 61421. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: magami.irfan@gmail.com
  • 4 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 5 Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology, Faculty of Engineering Technology, University Malaysia Perlis,02100 Padang Besar, Perlis, Malaysia
  • 6 Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Clinical Science, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 7 Department of Paediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, 50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Comput Methods Programs Biomed, 2019 Oct;180:105036.
PMID: 31430594 DOI: 10.1016/j.cmpb.2019.105036

Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnea is one of the most common breathing disorders. Undiagnosed sleep apnea is a hidden health crisis to the patient and it could raise the risk of heart diseases, high blood pressure, depression and diabetes. The throat muscle (i.e., tongue and soft palate) relax narrows the airway and causes the blockage of the airway in breathing. To understand this phenomenon computational fluid dynamics method has emerged as a handy tool to conduct the modeling and analysis of airflow characteristics. The comprehensive fluid-structure interaction method provides the realistic visualization of the airflow and interaction with the throat muscle. Thus, this paper reviews the scientific work related to the fluid-structure interaction (FSI) for the evaluation of obstructive sleep apnea, using computational techniques. In total 102 articles were analyzed, each article was evaluated based on the elements related with fluid-structure interaction of sleep apnea via computational techniques. In this review, the significance of FSI for the evaluation of obstructive sleep apnea has been critically examined. Then the flow properties, boundary conditions and validation of the model are given due consideration to present a broad perspective of CFD being applied to study sleep apnea. Finally, the challenges of FSI simulation methods are also highlighted in this article.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.