Interdisciplinary care is increasingly promoted to enhance satisfaction and outcomes for individuals with complex medical conditions, such as Parkinson's disease (PD). However, there is little research on the feasibility or efficacy of interdisciplinary care in clinical settings. And, while the use of an integrated team of allied health professionals has the potential to provide significant health benefits to individuals with PD, there are educational and logistical barriers to the use of interdisciplinary care in clinical settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Respiratory-swallow coordination (RSC) frequently changes in people with Parkinson's disease (PwPD). Little is known about how these changes relate to impairments in swallowing safety (penetration and aspiration) and efficiency (pharyngeal residue). Therefore, the aims of this study were to assess the relationships between RSC, pharyngeal residue, penetration, and aspiration in PwPD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRespir Physiol Neurobiol
January 2025
Purpose: Expiratory muscle strength training (EMST) is a resistance exercise used to improve maximal expiratory pressure and airway protective functions (cough and swallow) in clinical populations. Although ratings of perceived exertion/effort (RPE) are commonly used in exercise prescription and monitoring, they have been underutilized in EMST and require investigation. Our study aims were to: (1) examine how healthy adults rate their effort using the EMST-150 device and MicroRPM respiratory manometer; (2) assess variability in RPE; and (3) compare RPE and relative expiratory pressures obtained from the two devices.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultiple bolus trials are administered during clinical and research swallowing assessments to comprehensively capture an individual's swallowing function. Despite valuable information obtained from these boluses, it remains common practice to use a single bolus (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Minimal detectable change (MDC) represents the smallest amount of change required for an outcome to be considered real and not merely due to measurement error or task variability. This study aimed to examine MDC for cough and lingual strength outcomes among individuals with neurodegenerative disease.
Methods: In a single session, individuals diagnosed with Parkinson's disease (PD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and cerebellar ataxia completed repeated measurements of voluntary sequential cough via spirometry (n = 143) and lingual isometric and swallowing pressure with the Iowa Oral Performance Instrument (n = 231).
Cough is a powerful, protective expulsive behavior that assists in maintaining respiratory health by clearing foreign material, pathogens, and mucus from the airways. Therefore, cough is critical to survival in both health and disease. Importantly, cough protects the airways and lungs from both antegrade (e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Sensorimotor cough skill training (CST) has been shown to improve cough strength, as well as facilitate changes during training (i.e., motor performance) and generalization to untrained tasks (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCerebellar ataxias are neurological conditions with a high prevalence of aspiration pneumonia and dysphagia. Recent research shows that sensorimotor cough dysfunction is associated with airway invasion and dysphagia in other neurological conditions and may increase the risk of pneumonia. Therefore, this study aimed to characterize sensorimotor cough function and its relationship with ataxia severity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Speech Lang Pathol
November 2023
Introduction: Cough dysfunction is highly prevalent in Parkinson's disease (PD) and associated with pneumonia, a leading cause of death. Although research suggests that cough can be volitionally upregulated, patterns of improvements that occur during cough skill training and potential correlates remain unexamined. Therefore, we sought to characterize changes to peak flow during cough skill training, examine whether early variability predicted motor performance trajectories during treatment, and explore the relationship between peak flow during cough skill training and motor learning on a similar but untrained task (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Auditory-perceptual assessments of cough are commonly used by speech-language pathologists working with people with swallowing disorders with emerging evidence beginning to demonstrate their validity; however, their reliability among novice clinicians is unknown. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to characterize the reliability of auditory-perceptual assessments of cough among a group of novice clinicians. As a secondary aim, we assessed the effects of a standardized training protocol on the reliability of auditory-perceptual assessments of cough.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Expiratory muscle strength training (EMST) and sensorimotor training of airway protection (smTAP) are two exercises intended to improve cough and swallowing in people with Parkinson's Disease (PwPD). The aims of this study were to (1) examine whether EMST or smTAP elicit changes to vocal fold bowing; and (2) describe the safety of EMST and smTAP as it relates to the development of vocal fold lesions.
Method(s): This was a secondary analysis of data from PwPD who completed EMST or smTAP as part of a prospective randomized controlled trial.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to establish preliminary reference values for the Visual Analysis of Swallowing Efficiency and Safety (VASES)-a standardized rating methodology used to evaluate swallowing safety and efficiency for flexible endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES).
Method: FEES were completed in nondysphagic, community-dwelling adults using a standardized protocol of 15 swallowing trials that varied by bolus size, consistency, contrast agent, and swallowing instructions. FEES were blindly analyzed using VASES.
Dysphagia is a largely inevitable symptom in both progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) and Parkinson's disease (PD). To date, comparative studies in these diseases have failed to detect differences in the severity of impairments in swallowing safety or efficiency, potentially due to small sample sizes and outcome measures with low sensitivity. Therefore, this study sought to address these limitations by using novel measurement methodology to comprehensively compare swallowing safety and efficiency impairments between these populations in order to better understand whether differences may exist and guide clinical management.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe aim of this study was to examine relationships between the presence vs. absence of an aspiration-related airway protective response (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe goal of this study was to explore telehealth use for dysphagia management in response to COVID-19 to understand variables associated with clinician confidence and perceived effectiveness of this service delivery model and determine clinician-perceived benefits and challenges of managing dysphagia via telehealth. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs, n = 235) completed a web-based survey, providing information on demographics, telehealth use during the pandemic, and perspectives on current and future tele-management of dysphagia. Analyses included descriptive statistics to examine usage patterns; logistic regression to determine which variables were associated with telehealth use, clinician confidence, and perceived-effectiveness; and conventional content analysis to analyze responses to open-ended questions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe purpose of this retrospective study was to determine whether reduced lingual strength was associated with functional swallowing outcomes in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). Participants (N = 42) completed evaluations of maximal lingual isometric pressure (MIP) and mean lingual swallowing pressure (MSP), and flexible endoscopic evaluations of swallowing. Regression models were used to determine the association between lingual strength and functional swallowing outcomes of airway invasion, the presence of post-swallow pharyngeal residue, and the amount of pharyngeal residue (when present).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Disorders of airway protection (cough and swallowing) are pervasive in Parkinson's disease (PD) resulting in a high incidence of aspiration pneumonia and death. However, there are no randomized controlled trials comparing strength and skill-based approaches to improve airway protection in PD.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare expiratory muscle strength training (EMST) and sensorimotor training for airway protection (smTAP) to improve cough-related outcomes in people with PD.
Purpose: Airway protective deficits (swallowing and cough) greatly reduce health and quality of life and are a pervasive consequence of neurodegenerative movement disorders. Expiratory muscle strength training (EMST) and cough skill training (CST) are two treatment approaches to improve airway protection; however, many patients are unable to access these treatments. Telehealth may improve access to care, but it remains unknown whether these treatments are feasible and efficacious via telehealth.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Somatosensory feedback from upper airway structures is essential for swallowing and airway defense but little is known about the identities and distributions of human upper airway neurons. Furthermore, whether sensory innervation modifies with aging is unknown. In this study, we quantify neuronal and chemosensory cell density in upper airway structures and correlate with age.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: To verify the effect of resonance tube voice therapy on the vocal aspects of patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD).
Method: Intra-subject comparative controlled clinical trial with a single group assignment. Fourteen individuals with PD (10 men, mean age 66.
Background: Telehealth has been widely adopted in providing Parkinson's disease care during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
Objective: The aim of this study was to survey people living with Parkinson's disease (PwPD) about their attitudes toward and utilization of telehealth services.
Methods: A survey was administered to PwPD via Parkinson's Foundation and Columbia University mailing lists.
Despite rapid growth in the number of treatments to rehabilitate dysphagia, studies often demonstrate mixed results with non-significant changes to functional outcomes. Given that power analyses are infrequently reported in dysphagia research, it remains unclear whether studies are adequately powered to detect a range of treatment effects. Therefore, this review sought to examine the current landscape of statistical power in swallowing rehabilitation research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The primary aim of this study was to examine the criterion-referenced validity of the Visual Analysis of Swallowing Efficiency and Safety (VASES). As a secondary aim, we examined the concurrent validity of using verbal numerical ratings for VASES as a potential substitute for visual analog scale ratings.
Method: Fifty-seven novice raters were prospectively recruited to rate 26 flexible endoscopic evaluations of swallowing (FEES) images (2 times each, randomized)-once using VASES and once using a criterion-referenced scale.
J Speech Lang Hear Res
February 2022
Purpose: Voluntary cough dysfunction is highly prevalent across multiple patient populations. Voluntary cough has been utilized as a screening tool for swallowing safety deficits and as a target for compensatory and exercise-based dysphagia management. However, it remains unclear whether voluntary cough dysfunction is associated with the ability to effectively clear the airway.
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