Automated Non-Invasive Assessment of Silent Aspiration

Summary

Undetected or ‘silent’ aspiration of food, drink and secretions into the airway is a common cause of morbidity and mortality for people with a wide variety of acute and chronic neurological conditions, including stroke, Parkinson’s and paediatric neurodisability. Silent aspiration is detected by either videofluoroscopy imaging or an endoscopy.

These are invasive, have limited availability, require specialist staff, and some patients cannot complete them. Hence, they are not suitable for widespread screening, and permit only very infrequent testing. Ideally screening and monitoring for aspiration could be delivered simply and in the community, or even in the form of a wearable device for high risk individuals with fluctuating swallow function. 

Project aims 

In a collaboration with Prof Agarwal our group has developed a novel device worn on the neck that enables detection and analysis of acoustic signals associated with aspiration. The basic prototype has been through two rounds of clinical proof-of-concept trials, demonstrating feasibility of the technique to detect swallow anomalies with reference to the gold standard videofluoroscopy.   

Having established key design and technical considerations, the next stage of this project is to develop a more refined device and conduct clinical diagnostic performance trials. A student project can be tailored to the interests and skills of the individual, with options to focus on AI-based acoustic recording analysis, medical device development and prototyping, or translation of a novel device into clinical evaluation and diagnostic trials.   

Contact details

Matthew Smith - mes39@cam.ac.uk - Clinical Neurosciences 

Co-supervised by Prof Anurag Agarwal; Acoustics lab, Dept Engineering

Opportunities

This project is open to applicants who want to do a:

• PhD
• MPhil