Impaired swallowing mechanics of post radiation therapy head and neck cancer patients: A retrospective videofluoroscopic study

Figure 1 Two-sling mechanism for hyolaryngeal elevation in swallowing.

Figure 2 Pictured here are the nine coordinates mapping three skeletal levers (in red) and muscular slings displacing the hyolaryngeal complex with coordinates 1, 3, 8, 9 mapping the anterior muscular sling (in blue) and coordinates 2, 3, 6, 7 mapping the posterior muscular sling (in green).

Figure 3 Procrustes fit of coordinates adjusts for differences in rotation and scale.

Figure 4 Significant differences between control and test groups. HNC: Head and neck cancer.

Figure 5 Canonical variate analysis showing differences in coordinate configuration plotted by canonical variate scores with classification variables highlighted. rtHNC: Radiation therapy head and neck cancer.

Figure 6 Eigenvectors indicating mechanics of hyolaryngeal elevation of the control group from minimum (dotted lines) to maximum (solid lines) excursion.

Figure 7 Eigenvectors indicating mechanics of hyolaryngeal elevation of the radiation therapy head and neck cancer group from minimum (dotted lines) to maximum (solid lines) excursion.