Clinical findings of speech therapy swallowing assessments in patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia following orotracheal intubation

Purpose: Endotracheal intubation has been associated with oropharyngeal dysphagia. The aim of this study was to identify the prevalence of oropharyngeal dysphagia among patients in an intensive care unit (ICU) by comparing patients requiring orotracheal intubation with those who did not undergo this procedure. Method: This is a cross-sectional study that analyzed the medical records of 681 patients admitted to the ICU of Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre between 2014 and 2017; inclusion criteria were patients aged 18 years and older who had been assessed by the hospital’s Speech Therapy Service. Patients who had undergone tracheostomy, who had incomplete medical records or multiple speech-language assessments were excluded.  Results: A total of 380 patients were included in the statistical analysis: 97 (25.5%) had not undergone orotracheal intubation (Group 1), 229 (60.3%) had undergone orotracheal intubation once (Group 2), and 54 (14.2%) had undergone orotracheal intubation on 2 or more occasions (Group 3).  Regarding the Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS), 61.1% of patients in Group 3 received a FOIS I classification (p = 0.020), whereas 16.5% of patients from Group 1 received a FOIS V. Concerning their outcomes, 40.7% of patients in Group 3 died (p = 0.006), and 82.5% of patients in Group 1 were discharged from the ICU. Considering the severity of oropharyngeal dysphagia according to the Dysphagia Risk Evaluation Protocol (PARD), no statistically significant association was observed between groups (p = 0.261). Conclusion: In this study, the prevalence of oropharyngeal dysphagia was higher in patients who had undergone orotracheal intubation in the ICU

Prospective Clinical Registry to Evaluate Clinical Outcomes of Hypertension Patients in a Multidisciplinary Clinic

Introduction: clinical registries are necessary to define public policies for treatment and prevention, by providing highly accurate and interoperable data. Objective: to describe the implementation of a prospective, computerised, interoperable and multidisciplinary clinical registry to evaluate the clinical practice and outcomes of hypertensive patients. Methods: prospective observational study designed as a clinical registry carried out in a multidisciplinary hypertension clinic, in Brazil. A multi-professional team attends the patients. The database included patients with primary hypertension, above 18 years of age. Patients who had undergone surgery, a stroke, myocardial infarction, or renal failure were excluded. Variables were defined in accordance with national and international variables to allow interoperability. Results: the RE-HYPER registry was implemented by following the steps: (1) Data standardisation. The dataset included all applicable standardised data elements published by the American Heart Association / American College of Cardiology, and Brazilian national datasets standards; (2) Development of an initial data collection and clinical research workflow; (3) Development of electronic case reports (CRF) using REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) and in accordance with the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) privacy rule; (4) Pilot testing and validation of the data collection and clinical research workflows and CRFs, and (5) Development of automated data quality report using REDCap. Discussion: Due to the magnitude of this disease in the world, this study becomes relevant to clinical practice. Conclusion:  The study showed reproducible standards and solutions that can be applied in the implementation of health records, allowing data integration between health and research services

A dupla tarefa, desempenho na deglutição e atenção, influencia a disfagia em pacientes com doença de Parkinson?

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of dualtasking on swallowing performance and attention in patients with Parkinson Disease (PD). Twenty six participants were included, thirteen patients with PD and thirteen controls matched by age and education. All subjects were evaluated at single swallowing task and attentional dual-tasking. Swallowing parameters were analyzed by using Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation Swallowing Safety Study (FEESS). The attentional dual-tasking was realized using an adap-tation of “Stroop color test” on video. Images about swallowing pa-rameters in both conditions were analyzed by three experienced evaluators using literature definitions. Both groups underwent cog-nitive screening using MoCA. Although significant difference between swallowing parameters in both conditions were not found, in PD group there was an association between changes in parameters ac-cording to graduation and cognitive performance. The results show the dual-tasking influence worsening in PD patients with low scores on cognitive screening and low graduation. The results suggest more attention to PD patients that have worse cognitive status and/or low levels of education as the worsening of dysphagia and aspiration risk in performing dual-tasks to feed themselves.O objetivo principal deste estudo foi investigar o efeito da dupla tare-fa atencional no desempenho da deglutição em pacientes com doen-ça de Parkinson (DP). Vinte e seis participantes foram incluídos, treze pacientes com DP e treze controles pareados por idade e escolaridade. Todos os sujeitos foram avaliados em tarefa única de deglutição e dupla tarefa atencional. Os parâmetros da deglutição foram analisa-dos por meio do Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation Swallowing Safety Study (FEESS). O attentional dual-tasking foi realizado usando uma adaptação do “Stroop color test” em vídeo. Imagens sobre os parâmetros de deglutição em ambas as condições foram analisadas por três avaliadores experientes utilizando definições da literatura. Am-bos os grupos foram submetidos a triagem cognitiva usando MoCA. Embora não tenha sido encontrada diferença significativa entre os parâmetros da deglutição nas duas condições, no grupo DP foi encontrada associação entre alterações nos parâmetros de acordo com a graduação e desempenho cognitivo. Os resultados mostram que a influência da dupla tarefa piorou nos pacientes com TP, com bai-xa pontuação na triagem cognitiva e baixa graduação. Os resultados sugerem maior atenção para os pacientes com DP que apresentam pior estado cognitivo e/ou baixos níveis de escolaridade como o agravamento da disfagia e risco de aspiração na realização de tarefas duplas para se alimentar

Deglutition impairment during dual task in Parkinson disease is associated with cognitive status

Introduction Dysphagia is a relevant symptom in Parkinson disease (PD), and its pathophysiology is poorly understood. To date, researchers have not investigated the effects of combined motor tasks on swallowing. Such an assessment is of particular interest in PD, in which patients have specific difficulties while performing two movements simultaneously. Objective The present study tested the hypothesis that performing concurrent tasks could decrease the safety of swallowing in PD patients as visualized using fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing (FEES). Methods A total of 19 patients and 19 controls matched by age, gender, and level of schooling were compared by FEES under two conditions: isolated swallowing and dual task (swallowing during non-sequential opposition of the thumb against the other fingers). The two tasks involved volumes of food of 3 mL and 5 mL. The PD subjects were classified according to the Hoehn & Yahr (H&Y) Scale, the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). The FEES assessment was performed according to the Boston Residue and Clearance Scale (BRACS). Results The data showed a significant worsening of swallowing in the dual task assessment for both volumes (3 mL: p ≤ 0.001; 5 mL: p ≤ 0.001) in the PD group. A correlation between the MoCA and dual-task swallowing of 3 mL was also found. Conclusion These findings suggest that additional tasks involving manual motor movements result in swallowing impairment in patients with PD. Moreover, these data highlight the need to further evaluate such conditions during treatment and assessment of PD patients