Clinical indicators of dysphagia in patients with Parkinson disease

Purpose

It is well known that dysphagia in patients with Parkinson disease (PD) can be very disabling and hurt the quality of life. Thus, tongue function is crucial for swallowing. In this line, it has been proposed that inadequate lingual pressure conditions the swallowing process. We aimed to determine whether lingual pressures in PD patients are lower than in a control group. Also, to test whether objective lingual pressures correlate with questionnaires designed to detect dysphagia.

Method

Thirty-eight patients with PD and thirty-eight age- and gender-matched controls completed lingual pressure tasks with the IOWA oral performance instrument. Additionally, the experimental group completed the DYMUS questionnaire for the early detection of dysphagia and the Dysphapark questionnaire for assessing swallowing disorder awareness.

Result

Patients with PD presented significantly lower scores in lingual pressure tasks compared to the control group. Correlation analysis showed significant correlations between lingual pressure tasks and both questionnaires.

Conclusion

Lingual pressures, DYMUS and Dysphapark questionnaires can serve as clinical indicators for assessing dysphagia and prompt diagnosis and early speech therapy intervention of dysphagia in PD patients.