ArticleClinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology2020
Quantitative ultrasound of the tongue: Echo intensity is a potential biomarker of bulbar dysfunction in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Article in Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Muscle MRI and Muscle Ultrasound Applications in MND/ALS: Academic Insights and Clinical Opportunities.European journal of neurology · 2026Pooled it
- Quantitative Assessment of Tongue Atrophy in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Using Transoral Tongue Ultrasonography (TOTU): A Retrospective Single-Center Study.Muscle & nerve · 2026Article
- Lingual Fasciculation as a Point of Call for the Diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Literature Review.Cureus · 2024Review
- Ultrasonographic and manometric study of the tongue as biomarkers of dysphagia in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Neurological sciences : official journal of the Italian Neurological Society and of the Italian Society of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2023Article
- Comparison of Tongue Characteristics Classified According to Ultrasonographic Features Using a K-Means Clustering Algorithm.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesTo learn if quantitative ultrasound (QUS) distinguishes the tongues of healthy participants and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients by echo intensity (EI) and to evaluate if EI correlates with measures of bulbar function.
methodsUltrasound was performed along the midline of the anterior tongue surface in 16 ALS patients and 16 age-matched controls using a linear hockey stick 16-7 MHz transducer. A region of interest was manually drawn and then EI was determined for the upper 1/3 of the muscle. For patients, the ALS functional rating scale - revised (ALSFRS-R) was used to calculate bulbar sub-scores and the Iowa Oral Performance Instrument (IOPI) was used to measure tongue strength.
resultsEI was significantly higher in ALS patients than in healthy participants (49.8 versus 37.8 arbitrary units, p < 0.01). In the patient group, EI was negatively correlated with ALSFRS-R bulbar sub-score (R
conclusionsThis study suggests that EI can differentiate healthy from diseased tongue muscle, and correlates with a standard functional measure in ALS patients. SIGNIFICANCE: Tongue EI may represent a novel biomarker for bulbar dysfunction in ALS.
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