ABSTRACT
Although dysphagia is an important health problem and one of the determinants of quality of life in patients with dementia, the neurophysiologic changes of dysphagia in dementia have not been fully uncovered, yet. we investigated the changes of strength of tongue lip and pharyngeal muscles in patients with dementia. This study included 30 subjects with dementia. In all subjects, clinical assessments consisted of the Iowa Oral Performance Instrument (IOPI) for tongue and lip, surface electromyography (sEMG) with Vital stim plus on suprahyoid muscles, the Mini-Mental State Examination, and Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scales. All subjects were classified into 3 groups according to severity; CDR 1, 2, and 3. There was no difference between IOPI and sEMG among all 3 groups. The values of tongue and lip IOPI from all 3 dementia groups were significantly lower than values of control. The comparisons for values of tongue and lip IOPI among 3 dementia group were not different from each other. The sEMG of suprahyoid muscles were not different between all 3 dementia groups and control. These findings are supportive of dysphagia therapy for oral phase would be beneficial for the restoration of swallowing function in patients with dementia and dysphagia.