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Updated: Jul 1, 2025
Adapting Human Videofluoroscopic Swallow Study Methods to Detect and Characterize Dysphagia in Murine Disease Models
Published on: March 1, 2015
Diagnostic Accuracy of the Yale Swallow Protocol in Moderate-to-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: A Prospective Blinded
Justin Weppner1, Selcen Senol, Rayghan Larick
1Author Affiliations: Department of Internal Medicine, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, Roanoke (Dr Weppner); Department of Internal Medicine, Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine, Blacksburg, Virginia (Dr Weppner); Department of Internal Medicine, Carilion Clinic, Roanoke, Virginia (Dr Weppner and Ms Jackson); and Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (Dr Senol), Eastern Virginia Medical School (Mr Larick), Norfolk, Virginia.
Objective:
The study aimed to assess the accuracy of the Yale Swallow Protocol (YSP) in screening aspiration in adults with acute moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) by comparing the YSP with a videofluoroscopic swallow study (VFSS).
Setting:
Level 1 academic trauma center.
Participants:
The study involved a cohort of 50 consecutive adults with a history of acute moderate-to-severe TBI.
Design:
The prospective cohort study was conducted between July 2020 and June 2021. Participants underwent the YSP to assess aspiration risk, followed by a VFSS within 5 to 10 minutes after the YSP, to assess the accuracy of the YSP compared with the VFSS.
Main Measure:
The accuracy of the YSP in identifying aspiration in adults with acute moderate-to-severe TBI.
Results:
The interrater agreement for identifying aspiration on the VFSS and the YSP was excellent, as well as 100% agreement between the speech-language pathologists and the radiologist and between the 2 speech-language pathologists, respectively. Of the 50 participants, 16 passed the YSP, while 34 failed. Among those who failed, 30 were confirmed to have aspirated on the VFSS (true-positives) and 4 did not show aspiration on the VFSS (false-positives). The YSP demonstrated a high sensitivity of 96.8%, a specificity of 78.9%, a positive predictive value of 88.2%, and a negative predictive value of 93.8% in identification of aspiration in this cohort.
Conclusions:
To date, no dedicated prospective studies have been conducted to assess the utility of the YSP as a screening tool for identifying aspiration risk in persons with moderate-to-severe TBI. The results of this study conclude that the YSP is an effective screening tool for prediction of aspiration in acute care patients with moderate-to-severe TBI due to its high sensitivity and negative predictive value. These factors aid in identification of individuals at risk for aspiration and facilitate timely interventions to prevent complications.
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