This text-based course is a transcript of the webinar, “Dysphagia in Neurodegenerative Disease: Focus on ALS and Parkinson’s Disease,” presented by Debra Suiter, PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-S.
>> Dr. Debra Suiter: Thanks for joining me this afternoon as we talk about dysphagia, specifically focusing on dysphagia in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and in individuals with Parkinson's disease. I plan to review the background information for each disease, discuss characteristics of dysphagia in each disease, and review information regarding treatment, specifically focusing on research evidence for treatment of dysphagia in individuals with each of these diseases. How many of you are working with individuals with ALS? How about individuals with Parkinson's disease? How many of you are working in a hospital setting? How about a rehab setting? How about in a skilled nursing facility? It looks like we have fairly good representation of settings and a good number of you are working with individuals with Parkinson's and ALS.
ALS
We will start with a discussion of ALS. The name amyotrophic lateral sclerosis can be broken down into component parts. “A” means no or negative; “myo” refers to muscle; and “trophic” means nourishment. If we take that quite literally, the term amyotrophic means “no muscle nourishment.” We know that when a muscle lacks nourishment, it atrophies, and that is part of what happens in individuals with ALS. “Amyotrophy” refers to atrophy of the muscle fibers which are degenerated as their corresponding anterior horn cells degenerate. “Lateral” refers to areas in the spinal cord where portions of the nerve cells that nourish the muscles are located. As these areas degenerate, scarring or hardening, which is known as “sclerosis,” of the anterior and lateral columns of the spinal cord occurs. The motor neurons in those areas are replaced by fibrous astrocytes, which is a process known as gliosis.
