Characterizing Effortful Swallows from Healthy Community Dwelling Adults Across the Lifespan Using High-Resolution Cervical Auscultation Signals and MBSImP Scores: A Preliminary Study.
Cara Donohue, Yassin Khalifa, Subashan Perera and 2 others
PMID 34537905WHAT IT FOUND
High-resolution cervical auscultation signals distinguished effortful from normal swallows with 76% accuracy in healthy adults, but videofluoroscopy ratings showed no difference.
This suggests the sensor detects the maneuver even when standard clinical scores do not change.
Key findings
01Machine learning classifiers using high-resolution cervical auscultation signals achieved 76% accuracy in distinguishing effortful swallows from non-effortful swallows.
02There were no statistically significant differences in Modified Barium Swallow Impairment Profile scores for hyoid excursion, laryngeal vestibular closure, or pharyngoesophageal segment opening between effortful and non-effortful swallows.
03The study was conducted in healthy community-dwelling adults, not patients with dysphagia, and participants received minimal training prior to performing the effortful swallows.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study included only healthy adults, so the findings may not apply to patients with dysphagia. The sample size was small (247 swallows), which may have reduced statistical power to detect differences in clinical ratings. Participants had only one practice trial before performing the effortful swallows, which may not reflect trained performance. The accuracy of the effortful swallow maneuver was not verified with an independent measure like surface electromyography. The Modified Barium Swallow Impairment Profile scores may have hit a ceiling effect because all participants were healthy.
Declared interests
Funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the 76% classification accuracy as evidence that high-resolution cervical auscultation is ready for clinical use or that it detects clinically meaningful swallowing improvements. The study was preliminary, conducted in healthy adults, and the standard clinical ratings showed no difference between effortful and normal swallows.