Dysphagia, nutrition and hydration post stroke

A robust HD-sEMG sensor suitable for convenient acquisition of muscle activity in clinical post-stroke dysphagia

Objective.A flexible high-density surface electromyography (HD-sEMG) sensor combined with an adaptive algorithm was used to collect and analyze the swallowing activities of patients with Post-stroke dysphagia.Approach.The electrode frame, modified electrode, and bonded substrate of the sensor were fabricated using a flexible printed circuit process, controlled drop coating, and molding, respectively. The adaptation algorithm was achieved by using Laplace and Teager-Kaiser energy operators to extract active segments, a cross-correlation coefficient matrix (CCCM) to evaluate synergy, and multi-frame real-time dynamic root mean square (RMS) to visualize spatiotemporal information to screen lesions and level of dysphagia. Finally, support vector machines (SVM) were adopted to explore the classification accuracy of sex, age, and lesion location with small sample sizes.Main results.The sensor not only has a basic low contact impedance (0.262 kΩ) and high signal-to-noise ratio (37.284 ± 1.088 dB) but also achieves other characteristics suitable for clinical applications, such as flexibility (747.67 kPa) and durability (1000 times) balance, simple operation (including initial, repeated, and replacement use), and low cost ($ 15.2). The three conclusions are as follows. CCCM can be used as a criterion for judging the unbalanced muscle region of the patient's neck and can accurately locate unbalanced muscles. The RMS cloud map provides the time consumption, swallowing times, and unbalanced areas. When the lesion location involves the left and right hemispheres simultaneously, it can be used as an evidence of relatively severely unbalanced areas. The classification accuracy of SVM in terms of sex, age, and lesion location was as high as 100%.Significance.The HD-sEMG sensor in this study and the adaptation algorithm will contribute to the establishment of a larger-scale database in the future to establish more detailed and accurate quantitative standards, which will be the basis for developing more optimized screening mechanisms and rehabilitation assessment methods.

Application Value of Flexible Endoscopic Examination of Swallowing in Acute Stoke Patients With Dysphagia

BACKGROUND

The aim was to study the application value of flexible endoscopic examination of swallowing (FEES) for the aspiration screening, the diagnosis of dysphagia and evaluation of the therapeutic effect in acute stoke patients with dysphagia.

METHODS

A total of 525 patients with acute stoke who were hospitalized from October 2015 to January 2021 in the Rehabilitation Medicine Department of our hospital underwent FEES for analyzing the characteristic performance. Twenty-one cases of them were examined by video fluoroscopic swallow study and compared with the results of FEES for evaluating the reliability of the FEES, the reliability of diagnosis of dysphagia, and the consistency of the 2 methods. The effect of rehabilitation was evaluated by comparing the FEES test results before and after treatment.

RESULTS

In 525 patients, the FEES revealed 378 cases of aspiration (139 cases were silent aspiration), showing a higher detection rate than water swallow test. Patients with potential cricopharyngeus achalasia got the same results through both of examinations. FEES can provide more positive indicators, guide clinical rehabilitation treatment and objectively assess the effect of rehabilitation.

CONCLUSIONS

Acute stoke patients with dysphagia have characteristic pharyngeal and laryngeal performance. FEES is simple to operate and has high application value in the diagnosis and treatment of dysphagia.

[Influence of prior ischemic events on the nutritional status of patients hospitalized for stroke]

Introduction

Background and aims: a poor nutritional status may worsen the prognosis of stroke. We assessed which factors were associated with a worse nutritional status in patients with stroke at the time of hospitalization. Methods: a cross-sectional study in patients with stroke needing enteral nutritional support, from January 2014 to September 2016. Nutritional status was evaluated by the Mini-Nutritional Assessment tool, and the Subjective Global Assessment. We performed a multivariate regression analysis including demographic, baseline disability (modified Rankin scale), and clinical and anthropometric variables, and we stratified the sample based on median age. Results: we included 226 patients, 58.3 % male, with a median age of 77 (66.7-83) years. Forty-four percent were at risk of malnutrition, and 24 % were malnourished. The factors that were associated with a worse nutritional status were age (odds ratio (OR): 1.03; 95 % CI: 1.01-1.08) and modified Rankin scale score (OR: 1.96; 95 % CI: 1.32-2.67). In the stratified analysis, associated factors were, in the subgroup of patients older than 77 years, the baseline degree of disability (OR: 1.88; 95 % CI: 1.26-2.80), whereas in the subgroup of patients younger than 77 years, it was a prior history of ischemic events (OR: 2.86; 95 % CI: 1.01-8.16). Conclusion: in patients hospitalized due to stroke, older age and worse functional status were associated with a worse nutritional status at the time of hospitalization. In elderly patients, the main factor was prior functional status, while in younger patients it was a prior history of ischemic events.

The role of nutrition and hydration in disease prevention and patient safety

Omorogieva Ojo, Senior Lecturer in Primary Care at the University of Greenwich, O.Ojo@greenwich.ac.uk , looks at the importance of nutrition and hydration across healthcare settings.