Because oropharyngeal dysphagia in DMD was evident in teenage patients as well as those without clinical symptoms, VF is recommended in patients with DMD.

Activities of daily living in patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy are related to age and muscle strength, and manual muscle testing grade 3 is an important cut-off point to predict their disability.

Background/Aims: The standard of care for older patients with oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) is poor. Stimulation of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 might become a pharmacological strategy for these patients. This study aimed to compare the therapeutic effect of film food containing 0.75 µg of capsaicin in these patients. Methods: In a crossover, randomized trial, 49 patients with OD were provided capsaicin or identical placebo at least 7 days apart. Patients' reported symptoms during repeated swallowing, the volume, pH and substance P (SP) concentrations in saliva, and cervical esophageal wall motion evaluated by ultrasonographic tissue Doppler imaging were obtained before and after capsaicin or placebo administration. Results: Significantly more patients with OD who took capsaicin experienced improvement in symptoms than those who took placebo. Salivary SP levels were significantly increased after capsaicin administration compared with placebo in the effective group. The duration of cervical esophageal wall opening was significantly shorter in capsaicin administration in the effective group. Furthermore, a significant negative correlation was found between the duration of cervical esophageal wall opening and salivary SP levels. Conclusion: Elevated salivary SP concentrations stimulated by capsaicin greatly improve the safety and efficacy of swallowing, and shorten the swallow response in older patients with OD.

The Functional Independence Measure for Children (WeeFIM) instrument was developed, based on the FIM instrument, to assess disability in children aged 6 mo to 7 yr. Normative data are reported for American and Japanese children, and it is increasingly used for the disabled. Our purpose was to confirm scale quality and to determine the difficulty pattern of the WeeFIM in Japan. The WeeFIM was measured in 225 children (113 girls and 112 boys) aged 6 mo to 7 yr without developmental delays. The scores were converted to an interval scale by Rasch analysis, which assumes unidimensionality of the measurement items, determines the degree of the fit to the assumption, and decides item difficulty. When the WeeFIM items were divided into two groups of motor and cognitive items to minimize misfit, the degree of misfit was acceptable, except for eating, bladder management, tub/shower transfer, and comprehension. For the motor items, grooming, bathing, and bladder control were more difficult, and stairs, bed/chair transfer, and walk or wheelchair were easier. Concerning the cognitive items, expression and comprehension were easier, and problem-solving was most difficult. When we compared item difficulty patterns in the four age groups (6-21 mo, 22-45 mo, 46-62 mo, and 63-100 mo), we found no differences, except in toilet transfer. It was more difficult for younger children, possibly because of its different pattern of chronological change, which shows rapid changes from dependent to independent levels over a short period of time. Our study confirmed the scale quality of the WeeFIM instrument with Rasch analysis and demonstrated the difficulty pattern of the WeeFIM in nondisabled Japanese children.

No abstract