Ultrasound assessment of swallowing: a scoping review protocol

ABSTRACT Purpose: to conduct a scoping review to identify procedures to obtain and analyze ultrasound images related to swallowing in adults and older adults. Methods: the strategy (participants, concept, and context) was employed to determine inclusion criteria - population (adults and older adults), concept (ultrasound assessment), and context (assessment of swallowing). The review will analyze observational, experimental and/or quasi-experimental, descriptive, analytical, and qualitative studies, and opinion texts and articles. It will exclude studies unavailable in full text, in animals, or in vitro, letters to the editor, errata, study protocols, and studies using ultrasound with purposes other than swallowing. There will be no restriction on the language. Two independent professionals will select the studies in the databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, LILACS, Web of Science, and Scopus). The review will analyze the year of publication, study design, sample, age, and procedures to assess swallowing with ultrasound. Data will be presented in diagrams, tables, and narrative. Final Considerations: the literature has described ultrasound as an assessment instrument to analyze biomechanical swallowing movements. This scoping review will describe methods to acquire ultrasound images to assess swallowing.