The importance of the reproducibility of oropharyngeal swallowing in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. An electrophysiological study.
Clin Neurophysiol
; 128(5): 792-798, 2017 05.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28319880
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
To investigate electrophysiologically the reproducibility of oropharyngeal swallowing in patients with ALS.METHODS:
We enrolled 26 ALS patients, both with and without clinical signs of dysphagia, and 30 age-matched controls. The reproducibility of the electrophysiological signals related to the oral phase (electromyographic activity of the submental/suprahyoid muscles) and the pharyngeal phase (laryngeal-pharyngeal mechanogram) of swallowing across repeated swallows was assessed. To do this we computed two similarity indexes (SI) by using previously described mathematical algorithms.RESULTS:
The reproducibility of oropharyngeal swallowing was significantly reduced both in patients with and in those without clinical signs of dysphagia, with more marked alterations being detected in the dysphagic group. The SI of both phases of swallowing, oral and pharyngeal, correlated significantly with dysphagia severity and disease severity.CONCLUSIONS:
In ALS different pathophysiological mechanisms can alter the stereotyped motor behaviors underlying normal swallowing, thus reducing the reproducibility of the swallowing act. A decrease in swallowing reproducibility could be a preclinical sign of dysphagia and, beyond a certain threshold, a pathological hallmark of oropharyngeal dysphagia.SIGNIFICANCE:
Electrophysiological assessment is a simple and useful tool for the early detection of swallowing abnormalities, and for the management of overt dysphagia in ALS.Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Deglutition Disorders
/
Deglutition
/
Electromyography
/
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Type of study:
Etiology_studies
/
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
/
Screening_studies
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Language:
En
Journal:
Clin Neurophysiol
Journal subject:
NEUROLOGIA
/
PSICOFISIOLOGIA
Year:
2017
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Italia