Proposal of a Multimodal Analysis Method for Non-invasive Assessment of Swallowing Function

Pneumonia is a major cause of death in Japan, with aspiration pneumonia being the most common cause. However, no quantitative index exists for non-invasive swallowing assessment. Non-invasive, quantitative methods of assessing swallowing have been studied using pharyngeal ultrasound videos, surface electromyography, and swallowing sounds. However, each signal has limitations regarding the temporal and spatial ranges of swallowing movements that can be measured. This study develops a signal processing method to capture detailed swallowing behaviour based on the information obtained from each signal by recording three types of signals and comparing them on the same time axis.