Search Results (3)

Tongue pressure plays a critical role in the oral and pharyngeal stages of swallowing, contributing considerably to bolus formation and manipulation as well as to safe transporting of food from the mouth to the stomach. Smooth swallowing relies not only on effective coordination of respiration and pharynx motions but also on sufficient tongue pressure. Conventional methods of measuring tongue pressure involve attaching a pressure sheet to the hard palate to monitor the force exerted by the tongue tip against the hard palate. In this study, an air bulb was inserted in the anterior oral cavity to monitor the pressure exerted by the extrinsic and intrinsic muscles of the tongue. The air bulb was integrated into a noninvasive, multisensor approach to evaluate the correlation of the tongue pressure with other swallowing responses, such as respiratory nasal flow, submental muscle movement, and thyroid cartilage excursion. An autodetection program was implemented for the automatic identification of swallowing patterns and parameters from each sensor. The experimental results indicated that the proposed method is sensitive in measuring the tongue pressure, and the tongue pressure was found to have a strong positive correlation with the submental muscle movement during swallowing. Full article

Dysphagia is a condition that happens when a person cannot smoothly swallow food from the mouth to the stomach. It causes malnourishment in patients, or can even cause death due to aspiration pneumonia. Recently, more and more researchers have focused their attention on the importance of swallowing and respiration coordination, and the use of non-invasive assessment systems has become a hot research trend. In this study, we aimed to integrate the timing and pattern monitoring of respiration and swallowing by using a portable and non-invasive approach which can be applied at the bedside in hospitals or institutions, or in a home environment. In this approach, we use a force sensing resistor (FSR) to detect the motions of the thyroid cartilage in the pharyngeal phase. We also use the surface electromyography (sEMG) to detect the contraction of the submental muscle in the oral phase, and a nasal cannula to detect nasal airflow for respiration monitoring during the swallowing process. All signals are received and processed for swallowing event recognition. A total of 19 volunteers participated in the testing and over 57 measurements were made. The results show that the proposed approach can effectively distinguish the swallowing function in people of different ages and genders. Full article

We report a 22-year-old male patient who survived clinically unapparent acute traumatic transection of the distal ascending aorta and the proximal aortic arch. Two months after the incident, the patient presented with hoarseness, respiratory distress and severe venous congestion of the upper part of the body. Echocardiography demonstrated a huge mediastinal tumour, dilated right heart chambers as well as pericardial tamponade. In the computed tomography (CT), scan rupture of the distal ascending aorta and the proximal aortic arch was found. The preserved adventitial layer, preventing immediate death from exsanguination or pericardial tamponade, distended over time forming a false aneurysm with a diameter of 9 cm, with its main part being located to the left of the trachea. Systolo-diastolic motion of the thin-walled false aneurysm led to the typical pulse-synchronous horizontal motion of the thyroid cartilage and the trachea, described as the Cardarelli sign. As a result of systolic expansion and diastolic shrinking of this huge false aneurysm, the arterial blood pressure curve of the patient perfectly imitated the blood pressure curve seen only with a properly timed intra-aortic balloon pump. In addition, the systolic blood pressure repeatedly compressed the main pulmonary trunk, which crossed the bottom of the false aneurysm, consecutively leading to clinically apparent right heart failure, serous pericardial effusion and pericardial tamponade. The patient successfully underwent ascending aortic and proximal aortic arch replacement using deep hypothermia, circulatory arrest and selective antegrade cerebral perfusion. Full article