Hyolaryngeal Excursion as the Physiological Source of Accelerometry Signals during Swallowing

Swallowing dysfunction, or dysphagia, can result from any structural or neurological impairment that affects the swallowing mechanism. Accelerometry is a non-invasive technique that may be used to measure the epidermal vibration signals on a patient’s throat during swallowing. The purpose of this st...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Zoratto, Dana Christine Bech-Hansen
Other Authors: Chau, Tom
Language:en_ca
Published: 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1807/19018
Description
Summary:Swallowing dysfunction, or dysphagia, can result from any structural or neurological impairment that affects the swallowing mechanism. Accelerometry is a non-invasive technique that may be used to measure the epidermal vibration signals on a patient’s throat during swallowing. The purpose of this study was to map out the trajectories of the hyoid bone and arytenoids during swallowing to determine if a relationship exists between their trajectories and the signals obtained from an accelerometer placed on a participant’s neck during a scheduled videofluoroscopic swallowing study. Participants included 43 adult patients with neurogenic dysphagia. A software program was created to track the desired anatomy on the videofluoroscopic videos frame-by-frame. The data from the software was then compared to the integrated acceleration data multiple linear regression. The results show that the hyoid and larynx are not always correlated during swallowing and further suggest hyolaryngeal excursion as the primary physiological source of accelerometry.