Assessment of Dysphagia
There are several screening tools available to use to assist in the decision to assess via instrumental examination. The use of Peak Flow, The Yale Swallow Protocol, The Toronto Bedside…
Medications and Dysphagia
Why Should Clinicians Care? The patient’s medication is often overlooked as a source of a problem contributing to the patient’s symptoms of dysphagia. This type of dysphagia, one of the…
Lab Values in the Management of Dysphagia
Why Should Clinicians Care? When treating patients with dysphagia, it is important to evaluate the whole patient. The patient, the family, and the medical team consult the speech-language pathologist for…
Basic Neurophysiology Review
Why Should Clinicians Care? • Understanding the basic neurophysiology of the swallow mechanism will help clinicians identify the underlying pathophysiology and the level at which the swallowing system is not…
Anatomy and Physiology
Muscles of the Swallow, Action, Innervation, and Clinical Relevance Muscles of the lips and face are a complex orientation of fibers that act in a synergistic action to generate precise…
Muscle Biopsy Evaluation
Fig. 1.1 Orientation of the muscle biopsy. (a) Larger specimens can sometimes be oriented with the naked eye, but in many cases, the use of a dissecting microscope can ensure…
Nerve Biopsy Evaluation
Fig. 2.1 Properly clamped peripheral nerve is fixed in glutaldehyde for resin embedding and EM processing Once in pathology laboratory, the fresh specimen is snap frozen in isopentane cooled in…
Biopsy with Cutaneous Nerve Fiber Evaluation
Fig. 3.1 3-mm punch skin biopsy for diagnosing small fiber neuropathy. (a) After cleaning the biopsy site, a 3-mm punch is placed on the site perpendicular to the skin surface…
45-Year-Old Woman with Proximal Limb Weakness and Skin Peeling on Fingertips
Fig. 5.1 Hematoxylin and eosin stain (HE) shows active myopathy with a large collection of lymphocytic infiltrates in perimysium and surrounding a perimysial blood vessel. Alkaline phosphatase stain (ALK) shows…
