View clinical trials related to Deglutition Disorders.
Filter by:This study will compare several techniques designed to improve the ability to swallow in stroke patients with chronic dysphagia (difficulty swallowing). Healthy volunteers 20 to 60 years of age and people 20 to 90 years of age who have had a stroke resulting in swallowing problems may be eligible for this study. Volunteers are screened with a medical history, physical examination, and urine test for women to rule out pregnancy. Stroke patients are screened additionally with a chest x-ray, physical examination, cognitive screening, swallowing questionnaires, nasoendoscopy (examination of the nasal passages in the back of the throat using a lighted telescopic instrument) and FEESST (passage of a thin, flexible telescope through the nose to the voice box), videofluoroscopy (x-ray of the head and neck during swallowing) and button press training (learning how to press a button on a table in coordination with swallowing). All participants undergo the following procedures: - Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS): A metal coil is placed on the head and sends a pulse of energy to the brain through the scalp. The muscle response to the pulse is recorded from the muscles in the throat that are associated with swallowing. - Electromyography: A needle is used to insert tiny wires in specific muscles of the throat to record the muscle response to the TMS pulses. - Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): During brain MRI scanning, subjects lie quietly and images of the brain are taken. In addition to the above tests, stroke patients undergo the following: - Water test: The subject swallows a small amount of water and the number of times required to clear the throat or cough is counted. This test is repeated five times. - Experimental training. Subjects have a total of 12 60-minute training sessions, one session a day for up to 5 sessions a week. - Button press training: The subject swallows small amounts of water. A device placed on the throat senses when swallowing occurs. The subject learns how to coordinate pressing a button on a table in coordination with swallowing. - Vibrotactile stimulator training: A device that uses a buzzing vibration is placed on the throat at times during the swallowing training. - Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS): Wires attached to sponge electrodes are placed on the scalp and over the eye. Small electric currents are delivered to areas of the brain involved with swallowing. This is done at times during the swallowing training. Participants may receive one of several combinations of training approaches; all receive the volitional (button-press) training. Within 5 days of completing training, subjects repeat the tests. TMS, MRI, MEG and x-ray study of swallowing function are also repeated to see if any changes have occurred in the brain or in the ability to swallow after training. Patients are contacted by telephone and in writing 3 and 6 months after training for follow-up on their swallowing status and oral intake.
Swallowing dysfunction after stroke is common, but there is no reliable evidence for how it should be managed other than perhaps by nasogastric tube. This study compared the effectiveness of standardised, low and high intensity behavioral intervention for dysphagia with that of “usual care”.
Aspiration could induce major respiratory affection. They are often present after stroke. The aim of this study is to facilitate swallowing recuperation in stroke patients using peripheral laryngeal stimulation and to understand its mechanisms using motor evoked potential and cortical evoked potential.
The primary objective of this study is to compare the efficacy of bougie dilation to electrosurgical incision of symptomatic schatzki's rings at one year follow-up in the presence of rabeprazole treatment. All patients will be followed for one year for recurrence and/or severity of dysphagia and will be placed on rabeprazole for that time period.
To compare the treatment of gullet cancer with radiotherapy alone and assess the advantage and toxicity of adding chemotherapy. The hypothesis to be tested is as follows: That the addition of chemotherapy to a short course of radiation treatment improves the proportion of patients who achieve relief of dysphagia and improves quality of life compared to radiation alone in patients with advanced oesophageal cancer.
Ultrasonographic examination has long been used to assess the swallowing function. It has the advantages of no ionizing radiation on examination and the possibility of using the real food instead of the barium meal in testing. Thus, the subjects can be examined repeatedly and in a more physiological status of swallowing. However, the ultrasonographic examination is only used in assessing the oral phase of swallowing. It can accurately visualize the tongue movement, measure the oral transit time of bolus, and sometimes the hypoid bone motion, but has not been applied on the evaluation of pharyngeal phase of swallowing. Physically, laryngeal elevation is an essential component of the swallowing movement on pharyngeal phase. It ensures the occlusion of airway and opening of criopharymgeus muscle, and thus prevents the aspiration. To evaluate the laryngeal elevation is crucial point in managing the dysphagic patients. The purpose of this project is to measure the laryngeal elevation in normal and in dysphagic patients with cerebrovascular (CVA) accident using ultrasonographic techniques. This work will include four group subjects. The first group consists of 20 young subjects (< 40 years); the second group consists of 20 age-matched normal subjects; the third group consists of 20 CVA patients without swallowing problems, and the fourth group consists of 20 CVA patients with dysphagia, which was proven by VFSS. The laryngeal elevation is detected by ultrasound with the transducer placing between the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage. The two markers are easily detected on sonogram because of the presence of acoustic shadow, a specific character of bony structure on sonogram. The distance between the hyoid bone and thyroid cartilage before and during swallowing is measures and compared among the groups. The distance change of the patients with dysphagia is further compared with that defined by VFSS. With the result of this study, we will understand the status of laryngeal elevation during swallowing in normal and dysphagic subjects, and further determine the accuracy of ultrasonographic measurement in measuring the laryngeal elevation. With this knowledge, we might extend the usage of ultrasonographic examination on evaluating swallowing function.
This research will assess the accuracy of the Toronto Bedside Swallowing Screening Test (TOR-BSST), a new dysphagia screening test for patients with stroke. The purpose of the TOR-BSST is to predict the presence of dysphagia in stroke patients across their continuum of care in a simple and efficient manner. This initial research will assess the accuracy of the TOR-BSST in the acute and rehabilitative settings using videofluoroscopy as the gold standard for comparison. The results from this research will also assess the stability of the TOR-BSST across nursing, its primary user, and generate an estimate for the prevalence of dysphagia in adult stroke patients in the acute and rehabilitative settings. Participants in this research will be 315 stroke patients from several teaching centres in Ontario, namely 105 acute patients from the University Health Network, Sunnybrook & Women's College Health Sciences Centre, and Hamilton General Hospital, and 210 patients in the rehabilitation setting from the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and Parkwood Hospital, London. Both the TOR-BSST and videofluoroscopic assessment will be administered within 24 hours of each other and interpreted according to published preferred practice guidelines for dysphagia. This research will be the first to implement and assess a standardised method for screening for dysphagia in stroke patients across the continuum of stroke recovery.
The purpose of this study is to determine if palifermin will reduce the incidence of dysphagia in patients receiving concurrent chemoradiotherapy followed by consolidation chemotherapy for treatment of unresectable stage III Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC).
The aim of this research study is to determine the effectiveness of: 1) a traditional therapy regimen focusing on individual exercises for pharyngeal (throat) and laryngeal (voice box) musculature and 2) a new therapeutic exercise, the Shaker exercise. The primary objective of this 5-year project is to identify which of two therapy programs, the Shaker exercise versus traditional therapy, results in the largest number of stable, non-oral dysphagic patients who can swallow safely and return to full oral feeding after 6 weeks of intervention. The study is powered adequately so that this aim can be tested separately for head and neck cancer and stroke patients. Our primary outcome measure is return to oral feeding, i.e., 100% of nutrition and hydration by mouth.
This study will examine tongue strength and endurance, how the tongue applies pressure during swallowing, and how the chin muscles react during swallowing in healthy volunteers and in patients with dysphagia (difficulty swallowing). The information from this study may be helpful in developing better treatments for people with swallowing problems. Healthy volunteers who have no history of speech, swallowing or breathing problems and patients who have difficulty swallowing because of a neurologic disorder, musculoskeletal disease or head and neck cancer that caused tongue weakness and dysphagia may be eligible for this study. Such medical conditions may include stroke, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis corticobasal degeneration, progressive supranuclear palsy, Gaucher's disease, leukodystrophy, cerebral palsy, myositis, or mouth, throat or neck cancer. Volunteers who have not participated in a NIH protocol for 1 year will be screened with a brief medical history and physical examination. Dysphagic patients not currently enrolled in a NIH protocol will also have a brief medical history and physical examination. In addition, they will have a modified barium swallow to determine the nature and degree of their swallowing difficulty. Participants will have a 15-minute examination of movements of their tongue, lips and jaw and will fill out a questionnaire about their swallowing ability. They will then begin the tongue pressure test. To monitor and record tongue pressure, a thin rubber strip with air-filled pressure bulbs will be attached to the roof of the mouth with dental adhesive. The pressure bulbs are connected to an external pressure-reading device. In addition, a small plastic pad with adhesive backing will be placed under the chin. Electrodes (wires) attached to the pad record chin muscle activities. With the pressure bulbs and chin electrodes in place, the patient will perform tongue pressure tasks to test tongue strength, how long the patient can maintain a certain tongue pressure, and how fast tongue pressure drops. The tasks include saliva swallows, water swallows and cup-drinking.