PhD conferral Ms Walmari Pilz

“Shedding light on oropharyngeal dysphagia in myotonic dystrophy type 1”

Key words: oropharyngeal dysphagia, neuromuscular disorders, myotonic dystrophy, swallowing function, healthcare system, clinical assessment

Oropharyngeal dysphagia, which involves difficulty eating and drinking, is a common symptom in neuromuscular disorders such as in myotonic dystrophy.  Dysphagia takes a heavy financial toll on the healthcare system due to its complications that may include malnutrition, and aspiration pneumonia. Despite its importance, dysphagia is often under-diagnosed, presumably because it is overlooked in the clinical assessment of these patients. In this thesis we determine the characteristics of oropharyngeal dysphagia in myotonic dystrophy and we propose a multidimensional assessment of the swallowing function. The measurement scales used to asses swallowing were also explored aiming an improvement of dysphagia evaluation.