COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF TECHNIQUES FOR RECORDING RESPIRATORY EVENTS AT REST AND DURING DEGLUTITION

The coordination between swallowing and respiration is essential for s afe feeding, and noninvasive feeding-respiratory instrumentation has b een used in feeding and dysphagia assessment. Sometimes there are diff erences of interpretation of the data produced by the various respirat ory monitoring techniques, some of which may be inappropriate for obse rving the rapid respiratory events associated with deglutition. Follow ing a review of each of the main techniques employed for recording res ting, 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 instrum ents is recommended which can provide the necessary respiratory inform ation for routine feeding assessments in a clinical environment.