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Comparative Study
. 2014 Sep;23(8):2047-2053.
doi: 10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2014.03.008. Epub 2014 Aug 1.

Spontaneous swallow frequency compared with clinical screening in the identification of dysphagia in acute stroke

Michael A Crary  1 , Giselle D Carnaby  2 , Isaac Sia  3
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Spontaneous swallow frequency compared with clinical screening in the identification of dysphagia in acute stroke

Michael A Crary et al. J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis. 2014 Sep.

Abstract

Background: The aim of this study was to compare spontaneous swallow frequency analysis (SFA) with clinical screening protocols for identification of dysphagia in acute stroke.

Methods: In all, 62 patients with acute stroke were evaluated for spontaneous swallow frequency rates using a validated acoustic analysis technique. Independent of SFA, these same patients received a routine nurse-administered clinical dysphagia screening as part of standard stroke care. Both screening tools were compared against a validated clinical assessment of dysphagia for acute stroke. In addition, psychometric properties of SFA were compared against published, validated clinical screening protocols.

Results: Spontaneous SFA differentiates patients with versus without dysphagia after acute stroke. Using a previously identified cut point based on swallows per minute, spontaneous SFA demonstrated superior ability to identify dysphagia cases compared with a nurse-administered clinical screening tool. In addition, spontaneous SFA demonstrated equal or superior psychometric properties to 4 validated, published clinical dysphagia screening tools.

Conclusions: Spontaneous SFA has high potential to identify dysphagia in acute stroke with psychometric properties equal or superior to clinical screening protocols.

Keywords: Dysphagia; acute stroke; screening; swallow frequency.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Swallow frequency analysis rate for SLP referred versus not referred. Abbreviations: Ax, assessment; SLP, speech–language pathology; SPM, swallows per minute.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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