Swallowing Acoustic Characteristics of Time, Intensity, and Frequency in Healthy Adults

Background: Swallowing is a neuromuscular function. It is evaluated to verify the presence of dysphagia and/or the possibility of occurrence of larynx tracheal aspiration, with the aim of introducing the possibility of a safe oral diet. Cervical auscultation complements this evaluation, which allows for the characterization of the type of background sound.

Aim: To describe the acoustic parameters of oropharyngeal swallowing in healthy individuals and to relate to the age, gender and consistency of the food.

Material and Methods: This was a retrospective observational cross-sectional clinical study, approved by Ethical Committee in Research under the number 995/12. Thirty-one adults, mean age of 29.6 years, participated in the study. An evaluation was made by swallowing saliva and 50 ml of water. The values were recorded by the Littmann® model 4100 electronic model, after a transfer to DeglutiSom® software. The results obtained at the significance level of 5% (p≤0.05) and the analyzes performed were done in the SPSS program version 21.0. Results: As a relation between the acoustic parameters and a food consistency, there was a statistical difference such as swallowing of saliva and liquid with respect to intensity (p = 0.038; p = 0.024). Regarding the relation between the time of swallowing with liquid (p = 0.024).

Conclusion: The acoustic parameters of deglutition were approximate in relation to the peak of frequency and they were not at the peak of intensity. There was a difference between swallowing of different consistencies in relation to the peak of intensity and association of swallowing time with a net consistency, and in relation to age and gender.

Keywords: Auscultation; Acoustic analysis; Deglutition; Swallowing; Stethoscopes; Adult.