Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Volume 89, Issue 5 , Pages 822-828, May 2008

The Effect of Effortful Swallow on Pharyngeal Manometric Measurements During Saliva and Water Swallowing in Healthy Participants

Presented to the New Zealand Speech Language Therapists Association, April 9–12, 2006, Christchurch, NZ; the 36th Jahreskongress des Deutschen Bundesverbandes für Logopädie, June 7–9, 2007, Karlsruhe, Germany; and the 27th World Congress of the International Association of Logopedics and Phonatrics, August 5–9, 2007, Copenhagen, Denmark.

  • Ulrike Witte, MSLT

      Affiliations

    • Department of Communication Disorders, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
    • Van der Veer Institute for Parkinson's & Brain Research, Christchurch, New Zealand
    • Department of Speech Language Pathology, University Hospital Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
    • Corresponding Author InformationReprint requests to Ulrike Witte, MSLT, Universitaetsspital Basel, Institut für Logopaedie, Spitalstrasse 21, 4031 Basel, Switzerland
  • ,
  • Maggie-Lee Huckabee, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Communication Disorders, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
    • Van der Veer Institute for Parkinson's & Brain Research, Christchurch, New Zealand
  • ,
  • Sebastian H. Doeltgen, MSLT

      Affiliations

    • Department of Communication Disorders, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
    • Van der Veer Institute for Parkinson's & Brain Research, Christchurch, New Zealand
  • ,
  • Freya Gumbley, BSLT

      Affiliations

    • Department of Communication Disorders, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
    • Van der Veer Institute for Parkinson's & Brain Research, Christchurch, New Zealand
  • ,
  • Michael Robb, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Communication Disorders, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

Abstract 

Witte U, Huckabee M-L, Doeltgen SH, Gumbley F, Robb M. The effect of effortful swallow on pharyngeal manometric measurements during saliva and water swallowing in healthy participants.

Objective

To evaluate the effect of effortful swallow on pharyngeal manometric pressure measurements during saliva and water swallowing.

Design

Comparative analysis of pharyngeal pressure generation under 2 bolus and 2 task conditions.

Setting

Swallowing rehabilitation research laboratory.

Participants

Healthy participants (N=40), sex equally represented, with a mean age of 25.8 years.

Interventions

Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures

Manometric peak and nadir amplitude and duration measures at 3 locations in the pharynx.

Results

Significantly higher peak pressures were measured for saliva swallows compared with water swallows under both swallowing conditions at the proximal pharyngeal sensor only (P=.011). No significant differences were observed between the effortful versus noneffortful conditions at the proximal and midpharyngeal sensors; however, upper esophageal sphincter (UES) nadir pressures were significantly lower for effortful than noneffortful swallows (P=.034) with significantly lower pressure measurements in saliva effortful swallows (P=.008) compared with water effortful swallows. Saliva swallows resulted in significantly longer pressure durations than water swallows at the proximal (P=.003) and middle (P=.048) sensors. Pressure-generation duration was significantly longer in effortful versus noneffortful swallows for the middle sensor (P=.036) only.

Conclusions

The results indicate that the effect of effortful swallow on pharyngeal peak pressure measurement is not altered by bolus type (saliva vs water). However, this is not the case for nadir pressure measurements in the UES, which were significantly lower in effortful saliva swallows than in effortful water swallows.

Key Words: Deglutition, Rehabilitation

 

 No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit upon the authors or upon any organization with which the authors are associated.

PII: S0003-9993(08)00034-8

doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2007.08.167

Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Volume 89, Issue 5 , Pages 822-828, May 2008