Clinical and videofluoroscopic diagnosis of dysphagia in chronic encephalopathy of childhood*

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the contribution of deglutition videofluoroscopy in the clinical diagnosis of dysphagia in chronic encephalopathy of childhood. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study sample consisted of 93 children diagnosed with chronic encephalopathy, in the age range between two and five years, selected by convenience among patients referred to the authors' institution by speech therapists, neurologists and gastroenterologists in the period from March 2010 to September 2011. The data collection was made at two different moments, by different investigators who were blind to each other. RESULTS The method presented low sensitivity for detecting aspiration with puree consistency (p = 0.04). Specificity and negative predictive value were high for clinical diagnosis of dysphagia with puree consistency. CONCLUSION In the present study, the value for sensitivity in the clinical diagnosis of dysphagia demonstrates that this diagnostic procedure may not detect any change in the swallowing process regardless of the food consistency used during the investigation. Thus, the addition of the videofluoroscopic method can significantly contribute to the diagnosis of dysphagia.