Comparative review of techniques for recording respiratory events at rest and during deglutition

The coordination between swallowing and respiration is essential for safe feeding, and noninvasive feeding-respiratory instrumentation has been used in feeding and dysphagia assessment. Sometimes there are differences of interpretation of the data produced by the various respiratory monitoring techniques, some of which may be inappropriate for observing the rapid respiratory events associated with deglutition. Following a review of each of the main techniques employed for recording resting, pre-feeding, feeding, and post-feeding respiration on different subject groups (infants, children, and adults), a critical comparison of the methods is illustrated by simultaneous recordings from various respiratory transducers. As a result, a minimal combination of instruments is recommended which can provide the necessary respiratory information for routine feeding assessments in a clinical environment.