[Dysphagia] Food and barium

[chris_claire at bigpond.com (Chris and Claire Langdon)]

Dear all, 

I posed Irene's question 
"I continue my search for a reason for mixing food with barium for VFSS. Barium alone, if aspirated is innocuous but, if, as is unfortunately too often the case, VFSS is performed to look for aspiration which is, logically, at least potential in the clinician's mind, why risk the aspiration of a harmful substance i.e. food, when barium alone is sufficient and harmless as well as being the substance used in all available research on swallowing?"
about the development of the MBSS directly to Dr Logemann - her response below.

The modified barium swallow, as I developed it, utilizes standardized amounts and viscosities of barium and always has.  Then for patients with particular complaints of swallowing difficulty with certain foods we began to add barium to those foods.  And, as part of the research protocol for the large clinical trial we are running with patients who have dementia and/or Parkinson's disease, we worked with E-Z Em, Inc., to produce standardized barium viscosities of nectar and honey (JoAnne Robbins' lab- UW Madison ) and pudding barium (Jeri Logemann's lab-Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois) and attempted to improve the flavor of bariums as well. The entire purpose has always been to understand the normal swallow and its variants and how the patient's swallow differs from normal.  We still have many questions about normal swallow physiology and the ways it changes systematically or randomly with bolus characteristics.  Please note there is nothing that is harmless when it comes to aspiration, including barium.  

I hope this is helpful to you.  All the best in your swallowing work.
Jeri Logemann

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Irene Campbell-Taylor 
  To: Sharon Manders ; Chris and Claire Langdon 
  Cc: Irene Campbell-Taylor ; dysphagia@b9.com 
  Sent: Monday, March 14, 2005 12:43 AM
  Subject: Re: [Dysphagia] Food and barium




  Sharon Manders <cmandersn223@rogers.com> wrote: 
    I too thought Dr. Logemann started this particular practice. This was 
    the impression I got at a workshop I attended in CHicago.

    *** Based on what? Anyone have an idea?






  Dr I Campbell-Taylor
  Clinical Neuroscientist
  Exclusive Distributor:
  www.interactivetherapy.com