Department of Psychology, Speech and Hearing, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
University of Canterbury Rose Centre for Stroke Recovery and Research, Christchurch, New Zealand.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2021 Aug 9;64(8):2928-2940. doi: 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00026. Epub 2021 Jul 14.
Purpose Ultrasound imaging offers a noninvasive adjunct to clinical swallowing assessment. Published reliability of sophisticated ultrasound systems is promising; however, no data exist for reliability using more affordable, pocket-sized devices. This study explored intrarater, interrater, and test-retest reliability of swallowing measures acquired with pocket-sized ultrasound technology. Method Five participants collected measures of swallowing from 20 healthy individuals using the Clarius ultrasound. Hyoid excursion and thyrohyoid approximation were derived during saliva, liquid, and puree swallowing. The cross-sectional area of the floor of mouth muscles and tongue thickness were obtained at rest. Measures were collected at two occasions minimum 11 days apart. Reliability was assessed for the entire process of data acquisition including scanning and online measurement, and for offline measurement of saved images. Results For most measures, reliability was poor (ICC [intraclass correlation coefficient] < .50) to moderate (ICC = .50-.75) for the entire process of data acquisition and poor to good (ICC > .75) when measuring saved images. Conclusion Further work is needed to elucidate whether our study findings apply to the Clarius system only or the data suggest a general limitation of pocket-sized ultrasound technology.
超声成像是临床吞咽评估的一种非侵入性辅助手段。已发表的复杂超声系统的可靠性数据很有前景；然而，使用更经济实惠的口袋大小设备的可靠性数据尚不存在。本研究旨在探讨使用口袋大小的超声技术获取吞咽测量值的内部和外部可靠性以及测试-重测可靠性。方法：5 名参与者使用 Clarius 超声仪从 20 名健康个体中收集吞咽测量值。在唾液、液体和泥状食物吞咽期间，获得舌骨和甲状舌骨的运动幅度。在休息时，获得口底肌肉的横截面积和舌厚。测量值至少在 11 天的两个不同时间点采集。对包括扫描和在线测量在内的整个数据采集过程以及保存图像的离线测量进行可靠性评估。结果：对于大多数测量值，整个数据采集过程（ICC [组内相关系数] <.50）的可靠性为差到中度（ICC =.50-.75），而保存图像的离线测量的可靠性为差到好（ICC >.75）。结论：需要进一步研究以阐明我们的研究结果仅适用于 Clarius 系统还是表明口袋大小的超声技术存在普遍限制。
