<p><b>Aims</b></p><p>The aims of the thesis were to validate investigation instruments for stroke patients with dysphagia, and to improve oropharyngeal dysphagia therapies.</p><p><b>Methods/Results</b></p><p>A Lip Force Meter, LF 100, affirmed excellent intra- and inter-reliability, sensitivity and specificity. Controls had significantly stronger lip force (LF) and swallowing capacity (SC) than stroke patients. A normal lower limit of LF was set to 15 Newton. Dysphagia symptoms improved in 7 stroke patients after a 5-week sensorimotor stimulation therapy comprising manual body and facial regulation in combination with palatal plate application. Impaired LF and impaired SC were parallel phenomena in 22 acute stroke patients and did not differ regardless of presence or absence of facial palsy. LF and SC improved and were parallel phenomena in 30 stroke patients and did not differ regardless of presence or absence of facial palsy, time lag between stroke attack and start of treatment, or age. SC was normalized in 19 of 30 dysphagia patients after a 5-8-week daily lip muscle self-training with an oral screen. </p><p><b>Conclusions</b></p><p>LF100 is an appropriate and reliable instrument for measuring lip force. Dysphagia improvement, by body and facial sensorimotor stimulation in combination with palatal plate application, or by training with an oral screen is excellent examples of brain plasticity and cortical reorganisation. . Swallowing capacity and lip force in stroke patients are parallel phenomena. A sub clinical facial paresis seems to be present in most stroke patients. Training with an oral screen can improve LF and SC in stroke patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia. </p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:uu-8337 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Hägg, Mary |
| Publisher | Uppsala University, Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Uppsala : Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary, text |
| Relation | Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine, 1651-6206 ; 299 |
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