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Introduction/Aims: Evaluations of pulmonary, cough, and swallow function are frequently performed to assess disease progression in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), yet the relationship between these functions remains unknown. We therefore aimed to determine relationships between these measures in individuals with ALS. Methods: One hundred individuals with ALS underwent standardized tests: forced vital capacity (FVC), maximum expiratory/inspiratory pressure (MEP, MIP), voluntary cough peak expiratory flow (PEF), and videofluoroscopic swallow evaluation (VF). Duplicate raters completed independent, blinded ratings using the Dynamic Imaging Grade of Swallowing Toxicity (DIGEST) scale. Descriptives, Spearman's Rho correlations, Kruskal–Wallis analyses, and Pearson's chi‐squared tests were completed. Results: Mean and standard deviation across pulmonary and cough measures were FVC: 74.2% predicted (± 22.6), MEP: 91.6 cmH2O (± 46.4), MIP cmH2O: 61.1 (± 28.9), voluntary PEF: 352.7 L/min (± 141.6). DIGEST grades included: 0 (normal swallowing): 31%, 1 (mild dysphagia): 48%, 2 (moderate dysphagia): 10%, 3 (severe dysphagia): 10%, and 4 (life‐threatening dysphagia): 1%. Positive correlations were observed: MEP‐MIP: r =.76, MIP‐PEF: r =.68, MEP‐PEF: r =.61, MIP‐FVC: r =.60, PEF‐FVC: r =.49, and MEP‐FVC: r =.46, p <.0001. MEP (p =.009) and PEF (p =.04) differed across DIGEST safety grades. Post hoc analyses revealed significant between group differences in MEP and PEF across DIGEST safety grades 0 versus 1 and grades 0 versus 3, (p <.05). Discussion: In this cohort of individuals with ALS, pulmonary function, and voluntary cough were associated. Expiratory metrics (MEP, PEF) were diminished in individuals with unsafe swallowing, increasing their risk for effectively defending the airway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Swallow and cough dysfunction are possible surgical complications of lung transplantation (LT). We examined voluntary cough strength, sensorimotor reflexive cough integrity, and swallow‐related respiratory rate (RR) across swallowing safety and aspiration response groups in recovering LT recipients. Methods: Forty‐five LT recipients underwent flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing indexed by the validated Penetration Aspiration Scale. RR before and after a 3‐ounce water drinking task was measured. Voluntary and reflexive cough screening were performed to index motor and sensory outcomes. T‐tests, one‐way ANOVAs, and chi‐square (odds ratios) were used. Results: 60% of patients exhibited laryngeal penetration (n = 27) and 40% demonstrated tracheal aspiration (n = 18); 72% (n = 13) demonstrated silent aspiration. Baseline RR was higher in aspirators versus non‐aspirators (26.5 vs. 22.6, p = 0.04) and in silent aspirators compared to non‐silent aspirators (27.9 vs. 20.7, p = 0.01). RR change post‐swallowing did not differ between aspiration response groups; however, it was significantly higher in aspirators compared to non‐aspirators (3 vs. −2, p = 0.02). Compared to non‐silent aspirators, silent aspirators demonstrated reduced voluntary cough peak expiratory flow (PEF; 166 vs. 324 L/min, p = 0.01). PEF, motor and urge to cough reflex cough ratings did not differ between aspirators and non‐aspirators. Silent aspirators demonstrated a 7.5 times higher odds of failing reflex cough screening compared to non‐silent aspirators (p = 0.07). Conclusions: During the acute recovery period, all LT participants demonstrated some degree of unsafe swallowing and reduced voluntary cough strength. Silent aspirators exhibited elevated RR, reduced voluntary cough physiologic capacity to defend the airway, and a clinically distinguishable blunted motor response to reflex cough screening. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives/Hypothesis: Quick, sensitive dysphagia screening tools are necessary to identify high-risk patients for further evaluation in busy multidisciplinary amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) clinics. We examined the relationship between selfperceived dysphagia using the validated Eating Assessment Tool-10 (EAT-10) and videofluoroscopic analysis of swallowing safety and efficiency. Study Design: Prospective, observational, longitudinal study. Methods: Individuals with ALS completed the EAT-10 and a videofluoroscopic swallowing study. Duplicate, independent, blinded analyses of the validated Dynamic Imaging Grade of Swallowing Toxicity (DIGEST) scale were performed to index swallowing safety and efficiency (mild dysphagia: DIGEST ≥ 1, moderate dysphagia: DIGEST ≥ 2). A between-groups analysis of variance with Games-Howell test for post-hoc pairwise comparisons was performed to examine EAT-10 scores across dysphagia severity levels. Receiver operator characteristic curve analysis, area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, positive– negative predictive values (PPV, NPV), and odds ratios (OR) were derived. Results: Four hundred and thirty five paired EAT-10 and DIGEST scores were analyzed. Mean EAT-10 score was 8.48 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 7.63–9.33). Individuals with dysphagia demonstrated higher EAT-10 scores (mild: 4.1 vs. 11.3, moderate: 6.0 vs. 17.5, P < .001). Mean EAT-10 scores increased across DIGEST levels (D0: 4.1, D1: 7.9, D2: 15.1, D3: 20.4, D4: 39.0). For mild dysphagia, an EAT-10 cut score of 3 was optimal: AUC 0.74 (95% CI: 0.69–0.78; sensitivity: 77%; specificity: 53%; PPV: 71%; NPV: 60%; OR: 3.5). An EAT-10 cut score of 7 optimized detection of moderate dysphagia: AUC 0.83 (95% CI: 0.78–0.87; sensitivity: 81%; specificity: 66%; PPV: 39%; NPV: 93%; OR: 8.1). Conclusion: The EAT-10 is an easy-to-administer dysphagia screening tool with good discriminant ability for use in ALS clinics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Given the need for quick and accurate dysphagia screening tools to optimize referral workflows and resource utilization in fast‐paced multidisciplinary amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) clinics, we evaluated the discriminant ability of the 3 oz. water swallow test (WST) to detect aspiration in individuals with ALS. Methods: A total of 212 paired 3 oz. WST (index test) and standardized videofluoroscopic swallow studies (reference test) were completed in individuals with a confirmed diagnosis of ALS. Blinded raters analyzed swallowing safety using the validated penetration‐aspiration scale (PAS; non‐aspirator: PAS < 6; aspirator: PAS ≥ 6). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, area under the curve (AUC), sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values (PPV, NPV) were calculated. Key Results: Index test: 78 (36.8%) WSTs were scored as a fail and 134 (63.2%) as a pass. Reference test: Aspiration was confirmed in 67 (31.6%) reference tests with 145 (68.4%) reference tests verified as having no aspiration. Sensitivity and specificity of the 3 oz. WST to detect radiographically confirmed aspiration was 55.2% and 71.7%, respectively (AUC: 0.635, PPV: 47.4%, NPV: 77.6%). Conclusions & Inferences: In this dataset, the 3 oz. WST did not demonstrate adequate sensitivity or specificity to detect aspiration in people with ALS as a stand‐alone dysphagia screening tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Upper esophageal sphincter is an important anatomical landmark of the swallowing process commonly observed through the kinematic analysis of radiographic examinations that are vulnerable to subjectivity and clinical feasibility issues. Acting as the doorway of esophagus, upper esophageal sphincter allows the transition of ingested materials from pharyngeal into esophageal stages of swallowing and a reduced duration of opening can lead to penetration/aspiration and/or pharyngeal residue. Therefore, in this study we consider a non-invasive high resolution cervical auscultation-based screening tool to approximate the human ratings of upper esophageal sphincter opening and closure. Swallows were collected from 116 patients and a deep neural network was trained to produce a mask that demarcates the duration of upper esophageal sphincter opening. The proposed method achieved more than 90% accuracy and similar values of sensitivity and specificity when compared to human ratings even when tested over swallows from an independent clinical experiment. Moreover, the predicted opening and closure moments surprisingly fell within an inter-human comparable error of their human rated counterparts which demonstrates the clinical significance of high resolution cervical auscultation in replacing ionizing radiation-based evaluation of swallowing kinematics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent publications have suggested that high-resolution cervical auscultation (HRCA) signals may provide an alternative non-invasive option for swallowing assessment. However, the relationship between hyoid bone displacement, a key component to safe swallowing, and HRCA signals is not thoroughly understood. Therefore, in this work we investigated the hypothesis that a strong relationship exists between hyoid displacement and HRCA signals. Videofuoroscopy data was collected for 129 swallows, simultaneously with vibratory/acoustic signals. Horizontal, vertical and hypotenuse displacements of the hyoid bone were measured through manual expert analysis of videofluoroscopy images. Our results showed that the vertical displacement of both the anterior and posterior landmarks of the hyoid bone was strongly associated with the Lempel-Ziv complexity of superior-inferior and anterior-posterior vibrations from HRCA signals. Horizontal and hypotenuse displacements of the posterior aspect of the hyoid bone were strongly associated with the standard deviation of swallowing sounds. Medial-Lateral vibrations and patient characteristics such as age, sex, and history of stroke were not significantly associated with the hyoid bone displacement. The results imply that some vibratory/acoustic features extracted from HRCA recordings can provide information about the magnitude and direction of hyoid bone displacement. These results provide additional support for using HRCA as a non-invasive tool to assess physiological aspects of swallowing such as the hyoid bone displacement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]