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Updated: Mar 11, 2026
Adapting Human Videofluoroscopic Swallow Study Methods to Detect and Characterize Dysphagia in Murine Disease Models
Published on: March 1, 2015
Brain regions involved in swallowing: Evidence from stroke patients in a cross-sectional study
Shiva Ebrahimian Dehaghani1, Fariba Yadegari2, Ali Asgari3
1Department of Speech Therapy, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Department of Speech Therapy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Background:
Limited data available about the mechanisms of dysphagia and areas involving swallow after brain damage; accordingly it is hard to predict which cases are more likely to develop swallowing dysfunction based on the neuroimaging. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between brain lesions and dysphagia in a sample of acute conscious stroke patients.
Materials And Methods:
In a cross-sectional study, 113 acute conscious stroke patients (69 male mean [standard deviation (SD)] age 64.37 [15.1]), participated in this study. Two neurologists and one radiologist localized brain lesions according to neuroimaging of the patients. Swallowing functions were assessed clinically by an expert speech pathologist with the Mann Assessment of Swallowing Ability (MASA). The association of brain region and swallowing problem was statistically evaluated using Chi-square test.
Results:
Mean (SD) MASA score for the dysphagic patients was 139.61 (29.77). Swallowing problem was significantly more prevalent in the right primary sensory (P = 0.03), right insula (P = 0.005), and right internal capsule (P = 0.05).
Conclusion:
It may be concluded from these findings that the right hemisphere lesions associated with occurring dysphagia. Further studies using more advanced diagnostic tools on big samples particularly in a perspective structure are needed.
