Report of the clinical donor case workshop of the European Association of Tissue Banks annual meeting 2014.

The European Association of Tissue Banks (EATB) donor case workshop is a forum held within the program of the EATB annual congress. The workshop offers an opportunity to discuss and evaluate possible approaches taken to challenging situations regarding donor selection. Donor case workshops actively engage participants with diverging background and experience in an informal, secure and enjoyable setting.

Associations between voice quality and swallowing function in patients treated for oral or oropharyngeal cancer.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate associations between voice quality and swallowing function in patients treated for oral or oropharyngeal cancer.

Methods: Recordings of speech and videofluoroscopy of 51 patients after treatment for oral or oropharyngeal cancer were analysed. Acoustic voice parameters (fundamental frequency (F0), perturbation (jitter %, shimmer %), harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR), and intensity (extracted from the vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/)) were compared to swallowing function parameters as assessed via videofluoroscopy (oral, oropharyngeal, and total transit time; estimated percent of oral, oropharyngeal, and total residue; oropharyngeal swallowing efficiency (OPSE), and the penetration/aspiration (PA-) scale).

Predictive modelling for swallowing dysfunction after primary (chemo)radiation: results of a prospective observational study.

Background And Purpose: The purpose of this large multicentre prospective cohort study was to identify which dose volume histogram parameters and pre-treatment factors are most important to predict physician-rated and patient-rated radiation-induced swallowing dysfunction (RISD) in order to develop predictive models for RISD after curative (chemo) radiotherapy ((CH) RT).

Material And Methods: The study population consisted of 354 consecutive head and neck cancer patients treated with (CH) RT. The primary endpoint was grade 2 or more swallowing dysfunction according to the RTOG/EORTC late radiation morbidity scoring criteria at 6 months after (CH) RT.

Artificial neural network analysis to assess hypernasality in patients treated for oral or oropharyngeal cancer.

Objective: Investigation of applicability of neural network feature analysis of nasalance in speech to assess hypernasality in speech of patients treated for oral or oropharyngeal cancer.

Patients And Methods: Speech recordings of 51 patients and of 18 control speakers were evaluated regarding hypernasality, articulation, intelligibility, and patient-reported speech outcome. Feature analysis of nasalance was performed on /a/, /i/, and /u/ and on the entire stretch of speech.

Internet and game behaviour at a secondary school and a newly developed health promotion programme: a prospective study.

Background: This study investigated the Internet and game use of secondary school children, the compulsiveness of their use and the relationship with other health behaviours. It also evaluated the preliminary results of a recently developed school health promotion programme, implemented at a secondary school in the Netherlands in January 2008. This programme is one of the first to combine seven health behaviours in one educational programme and is a pilot project for a case-control study.

Objective acoustic-phonetic speech analysis in patients treated for oral or oropharyngeal cancer.

Objective: Speech impairment often occurs in patients after treatment for head and neck cancer. New treatment modalities such as surgical reconstruction or (chemo)radiation techniques aim at sparing anatomical structures that are correlated with speech and swallowing. In randomized trials investigating efficacy of various treatment modalities or speech rehabilitation, objective speech analysis techniques may add to improve speech outcome assessment.