Validity of a New Stroke Dysphagia Screening Tool

Dysphagia or swallowing difficulty is common after stroke occurring in 25-78% of stroke survivors depending on the anatomic location of the stroke and the diagnostic test used. There are no universally accepted methods for doing a screen test at the bedside in the immediate setting after stroke. This study will assess the reliability of a bedside screen in terms of reproducibility of results between 2 independent screeners and in comparison to a fiberoptic study done by a speech language pathologist.