Automated assessment of hyoid movement during normal swallow using ultrasound

The potential for using ultrasound by speech and language therapists (SLTs) as an adjunct clinical tool to assess swallowing function has received increased attention during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a recent review highlighting the need for further research on normative data, objective measurement, elicitation protocol and training. The dynamic movement of the hyoid, visible in ultrasound, is crucial in facilitating bolus transition and protection of the airway during a swallow and has shown promise as a biomarker of swallowing function.

To examine the kinematics of the hyoid during a swallow using ultrasound imaging and to relate the patterns to the different stages of a normal swallow. To evaluate the accuracy and robustness of two different automatic hyoid tracking methods relative to manual hyoid position estimation.

Ultrasound data recorded from 15 healthy participants swallowing a 10 ml water bolus delivered by cup or spoon were analysed. The movement of the hyoid was tracked using manually marked frame-to-frame positions, automated hyoid shadow tracking and deep neural net (DNN) tracking. Hyoid displacement along the horizontal image axis (HxD) was charted throughout a swallow, and the maximum horizontal displacement (HxD max) and maximum hyoid velocity (HxV max) along the same axis were automatically calculated.

The HxD and HxV of 10 ml swallows are similar to values reported in the literature. The trajectory of the hyoid movement and its location at significant swallow event time points showed increased hyoid displacement towards the peak of the swallow. Using an interclass correlation coefficient, HxD max and HxV max values derived from the DNN tracker and shadow tracker are shown to be in high agreement and moderate agreement, respectively, when compared with values derived from manual tracking.

The similarity of the hyoid tracking results using ultrasound to previous reports based on different instrumental tools supports the possibility of using hyoid movement as a measure of swallowing function in ultrasound. The use of machine learning to automatically track the hyoid movement potentially provides a reliable and efficient way to quantify swallowing function. These findings contribute towards improving the clinical utility of ultrasound as a swallowing assessment tool. Further research on both normative and clinical populations is needed to validate hyoid movement metrics as a means of differentiating normal and abnormal swallows and to verify the reliability of automatic tracking.

What is already known on this subject There is growing interest in the use of ultrasound as an adjunct tool for assessing swallowing function. However, there is currently insufficient knowledge about the patterning and timing of lingual and hyoid movement in a typical swallow. We know that movement of the hyoid plays an essential role in bolus transition and airway protection. However, manual tracking of hyoid movement is time-consuming and restricts the extent of large-scale normative studies. What this study adds We show that hyoid movement can be tracked automatically, providing measurable continuous positional data. Measurements derived from this objective data are comparable with similar measures previously reported using videofluoroscopy and of the two automatic trackers assessed, the DNN approach demonstrates better robustness and higher agreement with manually derived measures. Using this kinematic data, hyoid movement can be related to different stages of swallowing. Clinical implications of this study This study contributes towards our understanding of the kinematics of a typical swallow by evaluating an automated hyoid tracking method, paving the way for future studies of typical and disordered swallow. The challenges of image acquisition highlight issues to be considered when establishing clinical protocols. The application of machine learning enhances the utility of ultrasound swallowing assessment by reducing the labour required and permitting a wider range of hyoid measurements. Further research in normative and clinical populations is facilitated by automatic data extraction allowing the validity of prospective hyoid measures in differentiating different types of swallows to be rigorously assessed.