Cine magnetic resonance imaging with simultaneous audio to evaluate pediatric velopharyngeal insufficiency

To develop a protocol linking cine magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to simultaneously acquired audio recordings of specific phonatory tasks to evaluate velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) in children.

Institutional review board-approved development and application of a novel dynamic cine MR imaging protocol linked to simultaneously recorded audio.

A tertiary care multidisciplinary pediatric airway center.

Three healthy adult volunteers and 5 pediatric volunteers (age range, 9.3-18.9 years; mean age, 12.4 years) from the multidisciplinary pediatric airway center with VPI who previously had undergone nasopharyngoscopy, videofluoroscopy, or both.

Cine MR imaging with simultaneously acquired audio files was performed in 3 adult volunteers to optimize the protocol and then in 5 pediatric volunteers meeting the inclusion criteria.

High-resolution cine MR images with clear intelligible audio recordings of specific phonatory tasks.

Using 3 healthy adult volunteers, a cine MR imaging VPI protocol was developed that links simultaneously acquired cine MR images to audio recordings of specific validated phonatory tasks. Five school-aged children with VPI from our multidisciplinary pediatric airway center were then enrolled and underwent cine MR imaging using this protocol. The cine MR images and audio recordings acquired were of sufficient diagnostic quality to evaluate VPI closure patterns in school-aged children with VPI.

Cine MR imaging linked to audio is a quick, safe, and well-tolerated dynamic diagnostic imaging tool that may eventually have the potential to guide more precisely the selection and application of surgical techniques for VPI.