A protocol for comprehensive assessment of bulbar dysfunction in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

ABSTRACT: Improved methods for assessing bulbar impairment are necessary for expediting diagnosis of bulbar dysfunction in ALS, for predicting disease progression across speech subsystems, and for addressing the critical need for sensitive outcome measures for ongoing experimental treatment trials. To address this need, we are obtaining longitudinal profiles of bulbar impairment in 100 individuals based on a comprehensive instrumentation-based assessment that yield objective measures. Using instrumental approaches to quantify speech-related behaviors is very important in a field that has primarily relied on subjective, auditory-perceptual forms of speech assessment(1). Our assessment protocol measures performance across all of the speech subsystems, which include respiratory, phonatory (laryngeal),

SUBMITTER: Yunusova Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3197394 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature