ABSTRACT
The compiling of a predictive clinical scoring system for the risk of a false passage (FP) has its origins in the limitations of tests which explore only the cough reflex, known to be absent or faulty in 40% of patients investigated for problems of deglutition. A raised clinical score is based on the results of an exhaustive prospective study of 140 patients tested for the first time by videofluoroscopy for FP, this being the reference investigation for false passages. Discriminant analysis allowed the most selective variables to be identified and retained. We have identified 2 categories of patients, according to whether or not they have had any ENT past history. The score is obtained by adding the weighted values for the selected clinical signs. For those patients with an ENT past history, 5 clinical variables were retained: the absence of adhesions = 14, the presence of a velar reflex = 8, the capacity for voluntary deglutition = 8, glottic obstruction = 6, the absence of primitive reflexes = 6, giving a total score for the variables of between 0 and 42. If the total exceeds 32 or is less than 26, there is no FP; for scores between 32 and 26, videofluoroscopy is required to give more precise evidence of the risk. When this scoring system was applied prospectively to a series of 105 patients, a correct predictive result was obtained in 54 patients (51.4%), an equivocal result in 42 patients (40%), and a false result in 9 patients (8.6%), 3 of which (2.8%) were false negatives. The predictive score for FP allows evaluation of the risks of FP in at-risk patients, and adaptation of the treatment strategy according to the type of disordered physiology expected from the cause; thus videofluoroscopy can then be reserved for cases where treatment fails, so that the precise deglutition problem can be pinpointed.
