Application of surface electromyography to assess swallow dysfunction in Huntington’s disease: A feasibility study [Conference Abstract]

Appiah, Afua, Hughes, Ellie, Drew, Cheney ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4397-6252, Rowlands, Sophie, Rosser, Anne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4716-4753, Lowery, Madeleine and Doheny, Emer 2026. Application of surface electromyography to assess swallow dysfunction in Huntington’s disease: A feasibility study [Conference Abstract]. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 97 (Supp 2) , pp. A56-A57. 10.1136/jnnp-2026-ehdn.133

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Abstract

Background: Dysphagia is common in Huntington’s disease (HD) and is associated with dehydration, malnutrition and aspiration pneumonia, a major cause of mortality. Surface electromyography (EMG) provides a non-invasive means to assess swallowing muscle activity, and EMG-derived features offer potential as biomarkers to track disease progression or treatment response in HD. Aims: A pilot study was conducted to investigate EMG-derived swallowing metrics in participants with and without HD. Methods: Four individuals with HD (1 female; 48.5±5.9 years; HD-ISS Stage 2 N=2, Stage 3 N=2; cUHDRS: 13.9±2.0) and four age-matched controls (3 female) completed the Repetitive Saliva Swallowing Test (RSST), 5ml and 90ml water swallow tests (WST5, WST90), with surface EMG (Trigno, Delsys, Inc.) recorded from the submental and infrahyoid muscles. Following automatic detection of onset/offset of each swallow-related contraction from EMG data, swallow temporal features and EMG root mean squared (RMS) amplitude normalised with respect to the RMS amplitude during the WST5 test were estimated. Results: In HD participants, the temporal features estimated in the infrahyoid muscle include swallow duration of 1.45±0.26 s, interval between swallows of 3.95±1.91 s (RSST), and swallow timing variability of 33.20±13.61% (WST90); normalised RMS amplitude was 0.94±0.21 (WST90). Corresponding control values were 1.41±0.44 s, 2.92±1.26 s, 15.79±12.41%, and 1.16±0.20 (normalised), respectively. Conclusions: The pilot data support the potential use of surface EMG to examine swallow function in HD. Larger cohorts and reliability studies are needed to investigate EMG features as potential biomarkers of dysphagia to assess treatment response or disease monitoring.

Item Type:	Short Communication
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Medicine Schools > Biosciences Research Institutes & Centres > Centre for Trials Research (CNTRR)
Publisher:	BMJ Publishing Group
ISSN:	0022-3050
Last Modified:	26 Oct 2026 12:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/190427

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