Active clinical trials for "Deglutition Disorders"

The primary purpose of the study is to evaluate whether the effect of bio-feedback dysphagia treatment is more effective than a control treatment in post-stroke patients. This study will be a randomized, single-blind controlled pilot study. The investigators intend to recruit 40 patients who have suffered a stroke and have dysphagia. Twenty patients will undergo training with bio-feedback (experimental group) and the other 20 patients will undergo standard training, using only verbal feedback rather than visual feedback (control group). The authors hypothesize that in the control group the efficacy of the treatment will be lower in the absence of immediate visual feedback of strength and coordination of the swallowing act.

Currently, there are no efficacious behavioral treatment approaches to address uncompensated aspiration, or aspiration without appropriate cough response, in Parkinson's disease (PD). This is of particular public health concern given that aspiration pneumonia is the leading cause of death in persons with PD. The overarching aim of the proposed study is to determine the efficacy of two distinct intensive rehabilitation paradigms, expiratory muscle strength training (EMST) and sensorimotor treatment for airway protection (smTAP), on airway protective clinical outcomes in persons with PD and dysphagia. The investigators anticipate the results will lead to reductions in the risks associated with airway protective deficits.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a specific rehabilitation program with oral screen used in an elderly population with dysphagia can improve elderly's swallowing capacity.

Background: Older people with neurological dysphagia are at risk of recurrent aspiration pneumonia. Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) has been shown to improve swallowing and cough reflexes which may protect dysphagic patients from aspiration pneumonia. Hypotheses: ACEI reduces the risk of pneumonia in older patients who are nasogastric tube fed because of dysphagia from cerebrovascular diseases. Design: Randomized placebo controlled trial Method: 302 older patients who have been tube fed for more than two weeks because of dysphagia secondary to cerebrovascular diseases are randomized to take half of lisinopril 5 mg or placebo tablet once daily for 26 weeks. The subjects will be recruited from medical wards in Prince of Wales and Shatin Hospitals, and from outpatients of geriatric or speech therapy clinics, who have had hospital stay in previous three months. The subjects are followed up at week 12 and 26. The primary outcome is the incidence rate of pneumonia as determined by pneumonic change on X ray and clinical criteria. The secondary outcomes are mortality rate, total episodes of pneumonia over 26 weeks, and swallowing ability defined by the Royal Brisbane Hospital Outcome Measure at week 12. Cost effectiveness analysis of public health care and personal health care costs will be performed. Intention to treat and log rank will be used to analyzed the group differences in outcomes. 60 subjects (30 in each trial group) recruited from medical inpatients at Prince of Wales Hospital will undergo swallowing videofluoscopy at baseline and week 12 follow-up.

This study will evaluate the effectiveness of conventional speech therapy associated with functional electrical stimulation in patients with dysphagia after ischemic stroke. Included patients will be divided into two groups, where in the intervention group the speech therapy is associated to functional electrical stimulation, and in the control group, the patients will receive the conventional speech therapy with electrical stimulation Placebo with intensity 0hz.

Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) and transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) are two (CE marked medical devices) new, non-invasive (over the scalp) brain stimulation (NIBS) techniques. Both tACS and tRNS deliver a weak current continuously across the brain using pads placed over the scalp, which has been shown safe and well-tolerated by healthy adults and patients. These two techniques are able to softly alter physiological function within the brain. tACS can influence the brainwaves which have been demonstrated to play important roles in movement, sensation, and thinking functions. tACS and tRNS have been investigated for several years and have been shown to be safe, well tolerated and produce beneficial results in hand movement, hearing, and working memory. Swallowing problems are life-threatening symptom among patients with brain impairments and elderly people. Until now, there are no studies investigating whether tACS and tRNS can have a beneficial effect on swallowing function in human. Our aim is to examine the effects of different strengths of tACS and tRNS to determine the best approach for brain stimulation that controls swallowing action, before using these techniques in patients with (neurological) swallowing disorders. Participants: Healthy adults who are aged 18 years old or above with no medical complications or significant past medical history will be recruited in the study.

Study design: Multicenter, experimental, randomized, crossed, double blind study (patient and results analysis). Aim: To evaluate the effect of different neurostimulation techniques on the neurophysiological and biomechanical swallowing mechanisms of patients with dysphagia associated with chronic stroke and select those techniques with the best results to be evaluated in the second phase of the study (medium-term effects). Outcome measures: Videofluoroscopy: prevalence of impaired efficacy and safety of swallow (penetrations and aspirations), penetration aspiration scale (PAS: from 0 to 8), biomechanical parameters (time to laryngeal vestibule closure, upper esophageal sphincter opening). Pharyngeal sensory evoked potentials (pSEP): latency and amplitude of obtained evoked potentials. Higher latency (0 onwards) means worse outcome and higher amplitude (0 onwards) means better outcome. Pharyngeal motor evoked potentials (pMEP): latency, amplitude, duration and area of obtained evoked potentials. Higher latency (0 onwards) means worse outcome and higher amplitude (0 onwards) means better outcome. Treatments and patients: 36 post-stroke patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia (PAS superior or equal to 2) randomized patients in 3 treatment arms (3 groups of 12 patients). Active and sham repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS): 90% of the resting motor threshold, 1250 pulses, 5 Hz. Active and sham Intrapharyngeal Electrical Stimulation (PES): 75% of tolerance threshold, pulses of 0.2 ms, 5 Hz, 10 min. Oral Capsaicin (active intervention, 10-5M, TRPV1 agonist) and placebo solution (sham): 100 mL, single administration. Administration of study therapies: The study will be performed in two visits separated for one week. In each visit patients will randomly receive active or sham treatment and a pre-post evaluation of biomechanics of deglutition (with VFS) and neurophysiological mechanisms (swallowing afferent and efferent pathways) will be performed in each visit. Acute randomized administration -> 1 active session (pre/post evaluation with VFS/pSEP/pMEP) + 1 separate control session 1 week apart (pre/post evaluation with VFS/pSEP/pMEP).

Oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) is a major complaint among many patients with stroke and causes severe complications. There is no specific treatment for these patients. Impaired swallow response is caused by a delay in the timing of oropharyngeal reconfiguration with delayed airway protection. Swallow response is initiated by sensory afferent fibers in the oropharynx and cerebral cortex reaching the central swallowing pattern generator (CPG) in the medulla oblongata and brainstem motor nuclei. Hypothesis: Stimulation of pharyngeal sensory afferent fibers through TRPV1 receptors and electrical stimuli might enhance the stimulation of the CPG and speed the swallow response. Long-term treatment of OD will improve clinical outcome of stroke patients. Aim: To assess the effect of TRPV1 agonists (capsaicin) and that of sensorial pharyngeal electrical stimulation (intrapharyngeal and transcutaneous) on VFS signs and swallow response at 3, 6 and 12 months after treatment in stroke patients with established OD. To compare the clinical effect of classical rehabilitation strategies with that of these new afferent sensorial neurostimulation strategies in terms of nutritional status parameters, incidence of aspiration pneumonia and/or low respiratory tract infection, quality of life, and mortality. Methods: Clinical screening of OD with the volume-viscosity swallow test and assessment by VFS and quantitative measurements of swallow response. Randomized controlled trial assessing the effect of standard rehabilitation with that of afferent sensorial neurostimulation strategies.

The investigators aimed to evaluate effects of combined NMES, FEES and traditional swallowing rehabilitation in stroke patients with moderate-to-severe dysphagia.

The purpose of the research study is to investigate the effect of a brain stimulation technique called Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (TDCS) in improving swallowing functions in subjects who develop dysphagia after a unilateral hemispheric infarction.