Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37773172›Full record

Trial reportTrials2023

Assessment of radio(chemo)therapy-related dysphagia in head and neck cancer patients based on cough-related acoustic features: a prospective phase II national clinical trial (ACCOUGH-P/A trial).

Sofiana Mootassim-Billah, Gwen Van Nuffelen, Jean Schoentgen, Marc De Bodt, Dirk Van Gestel

Open access · goldAbstract readClinical Trial, Phase II
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Trials, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
3.2field-weighted citation impact, top 8% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Sofiana Mootassim-BillahDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Speech Therapy, Institut Jules Bordet, Hôpital Universitaire de Bruxelles, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium. s.mootassim-billah@hubruxelles.be.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4917-7360
Gwen Van NuffelenDepartment of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, University Rehabilitation Center for Communication Disorders, Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium.
Jean SchoentgenDepartment of Biomechatronics, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
Marc De BodtDepartment of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, University Rehabilitation Center for Communication Disorders, Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium.
Dirk Van GestelDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Head and Neck Unit, Institut Jules Bordet, Hôpital Universitaire de Bruxelles, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
Université Libre de Bruxelles · BEUniversity of Antwerp · BE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundRadiation-associated dysphagia is defined as impaired swallowing efficiency/safety following (chemo)radiotherapy in head and neck cancer patients. In a dysphagia framework, impaired coughing may lead to lung aspiration and fatal lung infection. Although cough efficacy is a predictor of the risk of aspiration, cough investigation is minimal in patients with radiation-associated dysphagia. Because cough is a transient signal, existing software for speech analysis are not appropriate. The goal of our project is to develop an assessment method using acoustic features related to voluntary and reflexive coughs as biomarkers of the risk of penetration/aspiration in patients with radiation-associated dysphagia.

methodsHealthy subjects and head and neck cancer patients with and without dysphagia will produce voluntary coughs, throat clearings and reflexive coughs. Recordings will be made using an acoustic microphone and a throat microphone. The recorded signals will be manually segmented and subsequently analysed with a software under development. Automatic final segmentation enables to measure cough duration. The first method of analysis includes temporal features: the amplitude contour, the sample entropy and the kurtosis. These features report respectively the strength, the unpredictability (turbulence noise due to the air jet) and the impulsive quality (burst) of the signal. The second method of analysis consists of a spectral decomposition of the relative cough signal energy into several frequency bands (0-400 Hz, 400-800 Hz, 800-1600 Hz, 1600-3200 Hz, > 3200 Hz). The primary outcome of this exploratory research project is the identification of a set of descriptive acoustic cough features in healthy subjects as reference data (ACCOUGH). The secondary outcome of this research in head and neck cancer patients with radiation-associated dysphagia includes the identification of (1) a set of descriptive acoustic cough features as biomarkers of penetration-aspiration (ACCOUGH-P/A), (2) swallowing scores, (3) voice features and (4) aerodynamic cough features. DISCUSSION: This study is expected to develop methods of acoustic cough analysis to enhance the assessment of radiation-associated dysphagia in head and neck cancer patients following (chemo)radiation.

trial registrationInternational Standard Randomized Controlled Trials Number (ISRCTN) registry ISRCTN16540497. Accepted on 23 June 2023.

Indexed as

Deglutition DisordersHead and Neck NeoplasmsCoughDeglutitionHumansProspective StudiesAcoustic analysisAssessment(Chemo)radiotherapyCoughHead and neck cancer patientsRadiation-associated dysphagia

Identifiers

PMID37773172
PMCPMC10540417
OpenAlexW4387185126

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.