Correlating Tri-Accelerometer Swallowing Vibrations and Hyoid Bone Movement in Patients With Dysphagia

Swallowing accelerometry has been recently investigated as a potential non-invasive tool for dysphagia screening. This method is based on the translation of vibrations recorded from the upper aerodigestive tract structure during swallowing into a voltage signal. Some studies hypothesize the hyoid bone movement during swallowing as the source of swallow vibrations, as it is an essential component of swallowing function that contributes to protection of the airway during the swallow. However, there is still an open question about the physiological source of swallowing vibrations. In this paper, we investigate the correlation between the swallowing vibrations recorded by the tri-axial accelerometer and hyoid bone kinetics observed in video-fluoroscopic swallow imaging studies. Further, this is a first of its kind study investigating this correlation with vibration signals measured in the medial-lateral plane of accelerometry. Our hypothesis is that there exists a correlation between the recorded swallowing vibrations in three axes and hyoid bone kinetics in videofluoroscopic images.Copyright © 2016 by ASME