Dysphagia Overview

Dysphagia is the medical term for swallowing difficulties. Difficulty swallowing (dysphagia) means it takes more time and effort to move food or liquid from your mouth to your stomach. Dysphagia may also be associated with pain. In some cases, swallowing may be impossible. Persistent dysphagia may indicate a serious medical condition requiring treatment.

Types of Dysphagia

Following are three main common types of dysphagia:

  • Oral Dysphagia: Oral dysphagia usually starts with a problem in the mouth. I can be caused after having a stroke, where the tongue muscle weakens and a person starts to have difficulty chewing food and transporting food from the mouth.
  • Pharyngeal Dysphagia: Pharyngeal dysphagia starts with a problem in the throat. Usually the issues in the throat are caused by neurological diseases that effects the nerves such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Mucous Membrane Pemphigoid (MMP), Parkison’s Disease and stroke.

  • Esophageal Dysphagia: Esophageal dysphagia starts with a problem in the esophagus. This is caused because of blockage or irritation in the esophagus. A person may feel pain when swallowing foods and liquids and it feels like something is stuck in the throat (globus). Usually a surgical procedure is required to fix such a problem.

Causes of Dysphagia

Swallowing is complex problem and a number of conditions can interfere with this process. Sometimes the cause of dysphagia cannot be identified. Dysphagia is usually caused by a health condition or disease.. Dysphagia can be caused because of the following diseases:

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)

First, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): ALS is an incurable form of progressive neurodegeneration; over time, the nerves in the spine and brain progressively lose function.

Achalasia

Second, Achalasia: In this condition, the lower esophageal muscle does not relax enough to allow food into the stomach.

Diffuse Spasm

Third, Diffuse Spasm: In this conditions the muscles in the esophagus contract in an uncoordinated way.

Stroke

Moreover, Stroke: In this condition, brain cells die due to lack of oxygen because blood flow is reduced. If the brain cells that control swallowing are affected, which can cause dysphagia.

Esophageal Ring

Furthermore, Esophageal Ring: In this condition, a small portion of the esophagus narrows, preventing solid foods from passing through sometimes.

Eosinophillic Esophagitis

In Addition, Eosinophilic Esophagitis: Eosinophilic esophagitis, eosinophils (a type of white blood cell) has severely elevated levels of  in the esophagus. These eosinophils grow in an uncontrolled way and attack the gastrointestinal system, causing vomiting and difficulty with swallowing food.

Multiple Sclerosis

Next, Multiple Sclerosis (MS): In MS disease, the central nervous system (CNS) is attacked by the immune system, destroying myelin, which normally protects the nerves.

Myasthenia Gravis

Also, Myasthenia Gravis (MG): In myasthenia gravis, which is an autoimmune disorder, the muscles under voluntary control become easily tired and weak because there is a problem with how the nerves stimulate the contraction of muscles.

Parkinson’s Disease

Accordingly, Parkison’s Disease: Parkinson’s disease is a gradually progressive, degenerative neurological disorder that impairs the patient’s motor skills.

Radiation Therapy

Moreover, Radiation: Some patients who receive radiation therapy (radiotherapy) to the neck and head area may develop swallowing difficulties.

Cleft Palate

Furthermore, Cleft Lip and Palate: Types of abnormal developments of the face due to incomplete fusing of bones in the head, which results in gaps (clefts) in the palate and around the nose and lip area.

Scleroderma

Additionally, Scleroderma: Scleroderma is a group of rare autoimmune diseases where the skin and connective tissues become tighter and hardened.

Esophageal Cancer

Likewise, Esophageal cancer: Esophageal cancer is a type of cancer in the esophagus, usually related to either alcohol and smoking, or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)

Esophageal Stricture

Finally, Esophageal stricture: In this condition the esophagus becomes narrow,  a narrowing of the esophagus is usually related to GERD.

Xerostomia

Lastly, Xerostomia (dry mouth): In this condition, there is not enough saliva to keep the mouth wet.

Signs and Symptoms of Dysphagia

Following are the signs and symptoms of dysphagia:

  • Coughing or gagging when swallowing
  • Feeling of food getting stuck in the throat
  • Drooling
  • Being hoarse
  • Bringing food back up (regurgitation)
  • Heartburn
  • Having food or stomach acid back up into your throat
  • Unable to swallow
  • Unexplained Weight Loss
  • Having to cut food into smaller pieces or avoiding certain foods because of trouble swallowing
  • Pain while swallowing (odynophagia)

Biospecimens

biospecimens

Bay Biosciences is a global leader in providing researchers with high quality, clinical grade, fully characterized human tissue samples, bio-specimens, and human bio-fluid collections.

Moreover, human biospecimens are available including tumor tissue, serum, plasma and PBMC Samples from most other therapeutic areas.

Furthermore, Bay Biosciences maintains and manages its own biorepository, the human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and likewise normal healthy donors for controls. Additionally, available in all formats and types.

In fact, our biobank procures and stores fully consented, de-identified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples, human biofluids such as serum samples, plasma samples from various diseases and matched controls.

Also, all our human tissue collections, human biospecimens and human biofluids are provided with detailed, samples associated patient’s clinical data.

In fact, this critical patient’s clinical data includes information relating to their past and current disease, treatment history, lifestyle choices, biomarkers, and genetic information.

Additionally, researchers find the patient’s data associated with the human biospecimens extremely valuable and use it to help identify new effective treatments (drug discovery & development) in oncology, as well as in other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and human biological samples, including fresh frozen human biospecimens cryogenically preserved at – 80°C.

For example fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE), tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood-derived products such as human serum, human plasma and human PBMCs.

Bay Biosciences is a global leader in collecting and providing human tissue samples according to the specified requirements and customized, tailor-made collection protocols.

Please contact us anytime to discuss your special research projects and customized human tissue sample requirements.

Types of Biospecimens

Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) and human bio-fluids from diseased and normal healthy donors which includes:

  • Firstly, peripheral whole-blood
  • Secondly, amniotic fluid
  • Thirdly, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BAL)
  • Next, sputum
  • Also, pleural effusion
  • Moreover, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
  • Likewise, serum (sera)
  • In addition, plasma
  • Moreover, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) 
  • Furthermore, saliva
  • Next, buffy coat
  • Accordingly, urine
  • For example, Stool samples
  • Also, aqueous humor
  • And, vitreous humor
  • Lastly, kidney stones (renal calculi)
  • Finally, other bodily fluids from most diseases including cancer.

Moreover, we can also procure most human biospecimens and human biofluids, special collections and requests for human samples that are difficult to find. All our human tissue samples and human biofluids are procured through IRB-approved clinical protocols and procedures.

In addition to the standard processing protocols, Bay Biosciences can also provide human biofluids such as  human plasma, human serum, and human PBMCs bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols. you buy donor-specific collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquots from us in multiple format and sets.

Bay Biosciences also provides human biospecimens from normal healthy donors; volunteers, for controls and clinical research, Contact us Now.