الفهرس 
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Abstract
SUMMARY
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune –mediated disease of the central nervous system. It is considered one of the most common causes of neurological disability in young adults globally. Swallowing dysfunctions are commonly observed in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The impact of dysphagia in patients with MS may be relevant, thus lowering the quality of their life, creating a potential risk of aspiration and consequent bronchopneumonia, a frequent cause of morbidity and death in late MS.
The aim of this work is to determine the prevalence of different stages of dysphagia in multiple sclerosis patients with different stages of disabilities and correlation between the stage of the disease and the stage of dysphagia in order to take the results in consideration while drawing the intervention plan.
In our study, 85% (n=34) of the included patients were females. The mean value for age at disease onset was 26.2±5.7 years.
With regard to the prevalence of dysphagia in the present study, we found that 35% have mild residue and 15% have moderate residue and 15% have moderate residue using FEES. In addition, 15% of the included patients have chocking, but there was no aspiration, nasal regurgitation or chewing problems.
In terms of the association between dysphagia and clinical characteristics of the patients, we found that there was a statistically difference between patients without residue, with mild residue and with moderate residue regarding the patient age at onset of the disease. Older patient age at onset of the disease was associated with more severe form of dysphagia. On the contrary, there was no statistically significant difference between patients below 25 years and patients over 25 years in the occurrence of chocking.
On the other hand, our study revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between males and females in the occurrence of chocking or in FEES findings.
The present study revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between the three groups of FEES findings in terms of disease duration. On the other hand, patients with disease duration >1 year have significantly higher incidence of chocking than patients with disease duration ≤ 1 year. The present study revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between the three groups of FEES findings in terms of number of relapses. On the other hand, patients with number of relapses > 2 relapses have significantly higher incidence of chocking than patients with number of relapses ≤ 2 relapses.
The present study revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between the three groups of FEES findings in terms of EDSS. On the other hand, patients with EDSS > 3 have significantly higher incidence of chocking than patients with EDSS ≤ 3.