An ultrasound examination of tongue movement during swallowing

Abstract

Abstract. Six female adults were studied during the production of four single swallows each, using real-time ultrasound. A pellet was affixed to the tongue at the junction between the (calculated) anterior third and posterior two-thirds of the tongue surface. Direction, rate, and extent of pellet movement were measured and used to create stages of tongue blade movement during swallowing. Pellet movement was then compared to the three stages of hyoid movement (ascent, steady, descent). Anterior-posterior and superior-inferior components of pellet movement were examined and discussed.

Coordinative Organization of Lingual Propulsion during the Normal Adult Swallow

“…These regional differences in similarity may be attributable to differences in how the tongue tip and blade are used for bolus transport. Typically, the tongue tip and blade brace against the palate to prevent the bolus from escaping the mouth and to stabilize the tongue so that the more posterior regions can complete the propulsive wave [3,6,12,18]. In the present study, the weak correlations between T1 and the other three pellets may be because T1 often remained elevated during the entire swallowing trial (Figure 7).…”

“…Because a majority of the existing empirical investigations on swallowing have studied more global aspects of swallowing performance, such as the time course of bolus transport, there is a paucity of data describing the action of the tongue during bolus transport. Several examples of the timing variables used to characterize swallowing performance are summarized in Table 1 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Comprehensive quantitative descriptions of the coordinative organization of lingual propulsion in neurologically intact individuals are needed for (1) understanding tongue behavior for lingual propulsion and for (2) identifying and gauging the degree of deficit in neuromotor impairments of swallowing.…”

Análise ultrassonográfica qualitativa e quantitativa da deglutição orofaríngea

“…It is noteworthy, however, that the USG of swallowing, as well as all the other imaging techniques, requires the speechlanguage therapist to have specific training with a specialized professional and to have basic knowledge of the appearance of the anatomic structures of the oropharynx, imaging procedures, and operation of the system (4) . There are studies that use the ultrasound of the tongue movement to characterize the oral phase of oropharyngeal swallowing (1,(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18) . Among these studies, some prioritized a qualitative description (1,(5)(6)(7) whereas others propose quantitative measures (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15) .…”

“…Among these studies, some prioritized a qualitative description (1,(5)(6)(7) whereas others propose quantitative measures (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15) . There are, also, studies approaching both qualitative and quantitative parameters of oropharyngeal swallowing at the same time (16)(17)(18) . In qualitative terms, there are different ultrasound descriptions in the literature, from the proposal of different stages during oropharyngeal swallowing, varying from four to nine stages, to the adoption of different criteria for each description, such as the movement of the tongue, the path of the food bolus and the displacement of the hyoid bone (1,(4)(5)(6)(7) .…”

“…Other studies (16)(17)(18) , however, described the oropharyngeal swallowing under the lights of ultrasound, both qualitatively and quantitatively, proposing not only stages of tongue movement and displacement of the hyoid, but also measuring the duration of the movement of the tongue, the contact of the tongue/palate, the speed of tongue propulsion, and the hyoid-larynx distance.…”