Early Radiation Effects on Tongue Function for Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: A Preliminary Study

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate early radiation effects on tongue function for patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and to provide a scientific database for early intervention plans. Twelve subjects with NPC and 12 age- and sex-matched normal subjects were included. Tongue maximum isometric strength and endurance at 50% of maximum strength were obtained once from normal subjects with the Iowa Oral Performance Instrument (IOPI) and twice from the NPC subjects: before and 2 months after radiation treatment. No significant differences were found in tongue function evaluation for normal or NPC groups in either pre- or post-treatments. However, this study showed that significant decreases in tongue function may not start until 2 months after treatment.

Reliability of measurements of tongue and hand strength and endurance using the Iowa Oral Performance Instrument with elderly adults

“…Only one study [20] reported inter-rater reliability for tongue endurance, with a perfect correlation (r ¼ 1) between assessors [20]. Nine studies have reported test-retest reliability of tongue strength [11][12][13][14][16][17][18]21,22]. Robin et al [5] provided the first report describing the test-retest variability as low (implying reliability was high) based on the small size of an individual participant's standard deviations.…”

“…Robin et al [5] provided the first report describing the test-retest variability as low (implying reliability was high) based on the small size of an individual participant's standard deviations. Subsequent studies [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] reported strong correlations as measures of test-retest reliability with correlation coefficients ranging from r ¼ 0.76 to r ¼ 0.99. Only one study [22] reported tongue endurance test-retest reliability (r ¼ 0.99).…”

“…Subsequent studies [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] reported strong correlations as measures of test-retest reliability with correlation coefficients ranging from r ¼ 0.76 to r ¼ 0.99. Only one study [22] reported tongue endurance test-retest reliability (r ¼ 0.99). In addition, Lazarus et al [11] reported that assessors had to meet pre-established criteria of at least r ¼ 0.76 for interobserver reliability and r ¼ 0.90 for test-retest reliability prior to conducting study assessments of tongue strength.…”

Effects of Change in Tongue Pressure and Salivary Flow Rate on Swallow Efficiency Following Chemoradiation Treatment for Head and Neck Cancer

“…For example, several studies have demonstrated that neither tongue strength nor endurance measures were significantly different from pre- to post-treatment [15–17]. However, one of these studies also reported lower tongue strength as compared with a healthy cohort [15].…”

Functional Base of Tongue Fat Injection in a Patient with Severe Postradiation Dysphagia

“…Irradiation of this area may cause numerous delayed complications, including dysphagia. The mechanism underlying this dysfunction is usually attributed to radiation-induced cranial nerve paralysis [8], but very little is known of the exact etiology since the number of long-term survivors is not large. The degenerative effects of RT on the hypoglossal nerve cause progressive wasting of the lingual muscles leading to a deficiency in protrusion and lateralization of tongue.…”