Clinical characteristics of bulbar involvement in spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy - Effects of palatal lift prosthesis on dysarthria and dysphagia

Spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy (SBMA) is a hereditary neuromuscular disease affecting only males characterized by progressive muscular atrophy and weakness in bulbar and limb muscles. The present study aimed to evaluate the features of velopharyngeal dysfunction (VPD) in SBMA subjects by an acoustic analysis of speech. Twenty-three genetically confirmed patients with SBMA were enrolled and assessed their speech by measuring the nasalance score with a Nasometer II. The nasalance scores of the SBMA group was higher than that of healthy controls (p  = .035) and significantly correlated with the total score of the revised amyotrophic lateral sclerosis functional rating scale (rs = −0.520, p = .011).

Source: Journal of the Neurological Sciences - October 14, 2019 Category: Neurology Authors: Seiya Tanaka, Atsushi Hashizume, Yasuhiro Hijikata, Shinichiro Yamada, Daisuke Ito, Atsushi Nakayama, Kenichi Kurita, Hiroaki Yogo, Haruhiko Banno, Keisuke Suzuki, Masahiko Yamamoto, Gen Sobue, Masahisa Katsuno Source Type: research