The Dynamics of Swallowing. II. Neuromuscular Dysphagia of Pharynx

Neuromuscular disorders involving the pharyn-geal phase of swallowing have hitherto been clas-sified on a radiological basis into descriptive but rather nonspecific categories such as vallecular dysphagia (1), so called on account of the re-siduum of barium seen after swallowing in the valleculae and pyriform sinuses, spasm of the mouth of the esophagus (2, 3) and cricopharyn-geal achalasia (4). The exact pathophysiology has been difficult to define using radiological tech-niques alone, although the development of cine-fluoradiography in recent years has enabled de-tailed observation of the anatomical movements of deglutition. This technique, however, has as yet given little additional information about the