McHenry, M.A., (1998). Velopharyngeal airway resistance disorders after traumatic brain injury. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 79(5), 545-549.
Type of
Study
Case studies
Subjects 53 men; 27 women; mean age 26; mean months most onset males-48 months, females-56 months; consecutive admissions
Diagnoses Severe TBI
Speech
Condition
Dysarthria ranging from none to severe
Purpose To determine the incidence of velopharyngeal deficits following TBI
To determine the relationship between velopharyngeal deficits and dysarthria severity

To determine the relationship between velopharyngeal resistance and perceived hypernasality
Methods Dysarthria severity assessment-oral peripheral evaluation, conversation speech sample, diadochokinetic rates, speech breathing analysis, voice evaluation, intelligibility testing,
CAIDS, phonetic contrast test

Instrumentation-pneumotachograph and differential pressure transducer
Results Half of subjects had reduced velopharyngeal resistance
Subjects with mild or absent dysarthria did not have velopharyngeal impairment

Subjects with severe dysarthria had very low velopharyngeal resistance

48% had reduced velopharyngeal airway resistance

Some discrepancies between perceived hypernasality and velopharyngeal airway resistance
Treatment
Implications
Velopharyngeal airway resistance deficits common after TBI and correspond to dysarthria severity
Relationship between velopharyngeal functioning and dysarthria is complex and should be paid attention to
 
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