Relationship between Dysarthria and Oral-Oropharyngeal Dysphagia: The present evidence

There is a high prevalence of dysphagia in patients with neuromuscular diseases and stroke, and consequences can be profound. However, the correlation of dysarthria and oral-oropharyngeal dysphagia remains unclear. This review aimed to define the clinical co-presentation of dysarthria and dysphagia in this population. A PubMed search to identify literature on the prevalence of dysarthria and dysphagia was systematically conducted in the English language literature since 1995. Subjective and objective outcomes instruments were identified for both dysarthria and dysphagia. Studies that included prevalence and co-presentation were included. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses (PRISMA). Of the 1,056 articles identified in the search, 20 articles met the search criteria. An additional 4 articles were examined for a total of 24 articles for analysis. Dysarthria and dysphagia were found to be highly prevalent among patients with neuromuscular disease (NMD). Overall, there was a higher prevalence of dysarthria than dysphagia. Of those patients with dysphagia, some reports estimate 76-90% of patients with NMD also had dysarthria. Dysarthria is a strong clinical clue to the presence of dysphagia. Existing subjective questionnaires may not reveal the presence of oropharyngeal dysphagia, but objective measures are more revealing. Further study to correlate the degree of dysarthria and severity of oral-oropharyngeal dysphagia are warranted.