The importance of the reproducibility of oropharyngeal swallowing in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. An electrophysiological study

Abstract Objective To investigate electrophysiologically the reproducibility of oropharyngeal swallowing in patients with ALS. Methods We enrolled 26 ALS patients, both with and without clinical signs of dysphagia, and 30 age-matched controls. The reproducibility of the electrophysiological signals related to the oral phase (electromyographic activity of the submental/suprahyoid muscles) and the pharyngeal phase (laryngeal-pharyngeal mechanogram) of swallowing across repeated swallows was assessed. To do this we computed two similarity indexes (SI) by using previously described mathematical algorithms. Results The reproducibility of oropharyngeal swallowing was significantly reduced both in…