Tongue movement during articulation in magnetic resonance imaging: Findings in 20 healthy volunteers and a patient with anterior floor of the mouth squamous cell carcinoma.

Purpose: Combined ablative and reconstructive oral maxillofacial surgery involves a multitude of anatomical and functional structures for speech and swallowing. Although there are a few methods to objectively examine swallowing function, this is not true for speech. We describe the development of an objective visualization and measurement tool for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate speech and its first application in a patient.

Material And Methods: A total of 20 healthy patients and one patient with squamous cell carcinoma localized in the anterior floor of the mouth were included in the study. Examination included an MRI examination of a paced, defined set of fictive words representing all sounds of the German language. The patient underwent MRI preoperatively and 1, 3, 6 and 12 months postoperatively. MRI findings were correlated with speech intelligibility.

Results: In sagittal planes, the correct identification of vowels and consonants was feasible and showed a high accordance between two independent observers and repetitions. Measurements for the patient showed significant deviations 1 month postoperatively but gradually decreased over time. Aberrant values were persistent for sound /s/. Findings correlated with clinical findings of speech intelligibility.

Conclusion: The presented tool seems to be promising for evaluating articulation in (tumor) patients.