Coordination of respiration and swallowing: functional pattern and relevance of vocal folds closure

Breathing and swallowing coordination, despite the expressive number of study, remain as theme deserving further research.

To identify a coordination pattern between swallowing and the natural breathing pause that occur in association with it (swallowing apnea) and also the relevance of the vocal folds closure in this process.

Sixty-six adults, male and female, including normal health people, post-laryngectomy individuals and patients with digestive complaints without dysphagia were analyzed. The respiratory air flux interruptions produced by wet requested swallows and dry, requested and spontaneous swallows, were registered using thermo and piezoelectric receptors coupled to synectics medical manometry equipment, using Polygram upper 4.21 software. The results were analyzed with the Chi-square (3x2) and (2x2) nonparametric independency test with P = 0.05.

Swallowing apnea is a preventive breathing stop that start just before and stay present during all deglutition pharyngeal phase. It is a well coordinated phenomena that occur as pattern in association with low elastic resistance of the lung, on the expiratory final phase until inspiration initial phase. This breathing stoppage it is usually followed by a short expiration preceding a new breathing cycle. The swallow apnea and vocal folds closure are both independent mechanisms.

It is possible to suppose that in the subconscious condition, swallowing apnea is integrated under coordination of the same control mechanism that also involves the elastic resistance of the lung.