Article

OBJECTIVE: To correlate voluntary cough and laryngeal cough reflex (LCR) flows in
patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.
SETTING: University rehabilitation hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Patients with TBI
(n=25) and healthy controls (n=48). INTERVENTIONS: Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME
MEASURES: Peak cough flows (PCFs) and LCR flows were measured using a peak flow
meter at the oral-nasal interface. The largest value of 3 attempts was recorded
for PCF and LCR, respectively. LCR was elicited by 20% solution of
pharmaceutic-grade citric acid dissolved in sterile .15M NaCl solution that was
inhaled from a nebulizer. RESULTS: PCF was 447.4 +/- 99.0 L/min in the control
group and 211.7 +/- 58.2 L/min in the patient group. LCR was 209.2 +/- 63.8L/min
in the control group and 170.0 +/- 59.7 L/min in the patient group. Both PCF
(P=.000) and LCR (P=.013) were significantly reduced in patients with TBI
compared to that of the control group. LCR was strongly related to the PCF in
both control (R=.645; P=.000) and patient (R=.711; P=.000) groups. CONCLUSIONS:
As LCR can be measured as a numerical value and significantly correlates with
PCF, LCR can be used to estimate cough ability of patients with TBI who cannot
cooperate with PCF measurement.
CI - Copyright (c) 2013 American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. Published by
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS