Reproducibility of Tongue Pressure Values in Adults With Down Syndrome.

AIM: Down syndrome (DS) involves an extra chromosome 21 and tongue hypotonicity. This study examined reproducibility of tongue pressure measurement (TPM) in DS patients.

METHODS

Thirty patients with DS (13 females) who were able to complete three measurements underwent a tongue pressure test (TPT). Reproducibility was evaluated using intraindividual standard deviation (SD) and coefficient of variation (CV). Patients were divided into two groups based on developmental age (DA): DA ≥ 4 years (over-4 DA) and DA < 4 years (under-4 DA).

RESULTS

Thirty DS patients with a mean age of 33.0 ± 11.7 years and mean DA of 3.8 ± 1.2 years were analyzed. Median tongue pressure was 17.6 kPa, SD was 2.0 kPa, and CV was 11.9. Eleven patients were in the under-4 DA group, and 19 were in the over-4 DA group. Significant differences in speech presence and CV values were observed between the groups (p = 0.002, 0.043).

CONCLUSIONS

The reproducibility of the TPT in DS patients with a DA ≥ 4 years is comparable to that in normal subjects.