Dysphagia Consultation with MassTex Imaging
We offer the most dynamic and complete swallow study available in New England. A Dysphagia Consultation with MassTex Imaging includes the Gold Standard, Modified Barium Swallow Study (MBSS), a physician consultation and assessment of food through the Esophagus into the Stomach.
Comprehensive consultations are performed by licensed, highly skilled, experienced Physicians and Speech Language Pathologists (SLP).
The consultation by the medical team includes assessment of aspiration risk, pneumonia risk, medication effects on swallowing and provides diet and strategy recommendations as well as quality of life /end of life discussions.
MBSS/Esophageal Assessment to Stomach
The Modified Barium Swallow portion of the exam consists of a video x-ray of a patient swallowing while the SLP is feeding the patient liquids and foods of various consistencies mixed with barium to observe and evaluate their swallowing function.
The MBSS is followed by an assessment of food through the esophagus into the stomach by the doctor watching the liquid and food mixed with barium travel into the stomach.
We strongly believe in the comprehensive dysphagia consultation we provide. Our consultation assesses all the biomechanical parameters of the oral, pharyngeal and esophageal phases of the swallowing, depth of the aspiration into the lungs, and effectiveness of strategies taking into account fatigue and any respiratory discoordination that may affect the swallow mechanism.
Our multi-disciplinary team approach provides a high level of medical decision making that allows for the most appropriate diet level and treatment plan. Our physicians assess the whole patient including the effects of medication on swallow function, comorbidities that may affect development of aspiration pneumonia and take into account quality of life issues when developing a diet level and treatment plan in conjunction with our speech language pathologists.
The Importance of Seeing the Whole Picture!
MassTex Imaging has been helping patients and treating clinicians for 10 plus years by viewing the patients swallow function in its entirety, checking the integrity of the cervical spine and soft tissue as well as diagnosing any esophageal dysphagia. In the last two years, our mobile medical practice looked at the data of over 10,000 studies we provided for adults over 60 years old and we found a 47% incidence of esophageal dysphagia in this patient population. Thus, reinforcing the importance of looking at the esophagus in conjunction with the swallowing industries Gold Standard, MBSS.