Respiratory Function Associated with Dysarthria following Upper Motor Neurone Damage

Abstract

The respiratory abilities of a group of 18 subjects with dysarthria due to damage to the upper motor neurone (UMN) pathways following cerebrovascular accident (CVA) were assessed using both kinematic and spirometric techniques and compared with those of a group of 18 non-neurologically impaired controls matched for age and gender. The respiratory function of the CVA subjects was found to differ from the control group performance across a number of respiratory parameters. Specifically, both the spirometric assessments and the kinematic analysis of maximum-effort speech tasks identified reductions in lung volumes and chest wall movements during maximum-effort speech tasks in the CVA subject group that appeared to be the net result of reductions in both the abdominal and rib cage excursions. Volume excursions and chest wall movements during reading and conversational tasks, however, were comparable to the control subjects. The specific nature of the respiratory behaviour of the present CVA subject group is discussed with respect to the outcomes of both the kinematic and spirometric assessment, and speculations made regarding pathophysiological basis for the identified deficits.