Abstract
Objective: To know swallowing ability, one of the most important subjects is to evaluate pharyngeal clearance of swallowing. Until today, age-related change of it has not been well known. We evaluate it in every age group using our newly developed quantitative measuring system in the videofluoroscopic (VF) swallowing study.
Method: The subjects were 65 healthy adults (31 male and 34 female) without dysphagia. All subjects were instructed to swallow 10 mL of 100% barium and the clearance was measured in %. Images of VF were captured, and volumes of contrast media were estimated by calculating thickness as a function of brightness.
Results: Pharyngeal clearance (%) could be measured in all subjects by this system. The mean pharyngeal clearance of them was 93.5%. We divided an age group into under 60 years old (younger group) and 60 years or older (elder group), and we compared the clearance between these 2 groups. The pharyngeal clearance in the younger group was more than 90% (mean: 95.1%), while in the elder group the mean of the pharyngeal clearance was 91.87%. Although these 2 showed a significant difference in pharyngeal clearance (P = .0021), there was no pathological decrease without aspiration in the elderly.
Conclusion: We successfully delineated the age-related change of the pharyngeal clearance of swallowing quantitatively in swallowing VF. Even in the elder group, however, the pharyngeal function of them should be better maintained than we expected. In the elderly, merely aging will not but other pathological factors lead to dysphagic condition.
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