AIM: To observe effects of early throat muscle training on vertebral-basilar artery blood flow in patients with pseudobulbar palsy and compare with healthy people. METHODS: (1) Thirty-two pseudobulbar palsy inpatients were selected from Department of Neurology of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University and Department of Neurology of First People's Hospital of Jingzhou, including 19 males and 13 females. The patients who took part in the trial voluntarily were divided randomly into 2 groups rehabilitation groups with 17 patients and control groups with 15 patients. Meanwhile 34 patients of health examination were chosen as health control groups with 18 males and 16 females. (2) The patients in the two groups were all treated with cerebral infarction. The patients in rehabilitation groups were treated with routine drug treatment for throat muscle training based on the routine drug treatment at the first day of hospitalization. The specific methods were pronunciation training, tongue movement training, face, lower jaw and throat movement, breathholding phonation movement and eating training. (3) The average blood stream speed of left and right vertebral artery and basilar artery was detected with transcranial Doppler ultrasound. (4) The differences of the groups of measurement data were detected by analysis of variance and q-test. The comparison of the groups was done by pair-matching t-test. RESULTS: Thirty-two pseudobulbar palsy patients and 34 healthy people were all involved in the result analysis. (1) Before intervention the average cerebral blood flow of basilar artery, right and left vertebral-artery: the differences of average blood stream speed between the two groups were insignificant (p > 0.05). It was significantly lower in rehabilitation groups and control groups than that in healthy control group (34.24 +/- 9.67, 33.46 +/- 10.08, 32.76 +/- 10.85, 32.67 +/- 8.34, 32.56 +/- 9.29, 33.12 +/- 9.15 cm/s; 44.26 +/- 11.43, 45.23 +/- 12.23, 45.46 +/- 10.33 cm/s; q = 6.32, 7.24, 13.14; p < 0.01). (2) After intervention the average cerebral blood flow in basilar artery, right and left vertebral-artery: it was significantly higher in rehabilitation group than that before treatment (43.12 +/- 9.87, 45.48 +/- 11.67, 44.81 +/- 9.57; q = 8.51, 9.14, 11.37; p < 0.01). It was significantly higher in control group than that before treatment (38.96 +/- 8.16, 40.37 +/- 10.74, 39.97 +/- 8.24 cm/s; q = 5.46, 7.65, 6.67; p < 0.01). It was nearly the same between that in rehabilitation and healthy control group and that in control group (p > 0.05). It was significantly lower in control group than that in healthy control group (q = 2.96, 3.72, 3.69; p < 0.05). It was significantly higher in rehabilitation than that in control group (t = 3.57, 3.16, 3.06; p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The early throat muscle training can increase the average cerebral blood flow of vertebral-basilar artery in patients with pseudobulbar palsy, moreover, after the treatment the blood flow is near to the healthy value.

Full text (sometimes free) may be available at these link(s):      help

• PDF locator
• publisher