title: Taking the history in patients with swallowing disorders: an international multidisciplinary survey.
abstract: Clinical assessment of swallowing disorders (dysphagia) requires accurate and comprehensive medical history-taking to further tailor the diagnostic work-up, but functional health care questionnaires show a large variability and various limitations. The aim of this study was to assess the way in which international swallowing experts from various disciplines asses swallowing problems in order to improve the radiologist´s ability to take a thorough medical history in this specific patient group.
  
  
  
  A two-step Delphi method was used to collect swallowing experts' ways of taking the medical history in patients with swallowing disorders. The questions obtained in a first interview round were pooled and structured by dividing them into general and specific questions, including several subcategories, and these were scored by the experts in a second step based on to their clinical relevance.
  
  
  
  Eighteen experts provided 25 different questions categorized as general questions and 34 dimension-specific questions (eight attributed to 'suspicion of aspiration,' 13 to 'dysphagia,' six to 'globus sensation,' four to 'non-cardiac chest pain,' and three to 'effect of life.') In the second interview round, the experts´ average predictive values attributed to those questions showed the varying importance of the presented items. Seven general and 13 specific questions (six of them attributed to 'effect on life' and seven 'others') were also added.
  
  
  
  This collection of questions reflects the fact that a multidisciplinary approach when obtaining the medical history in patients with swallowing disorders may contribute to an improved technique for performing a symptom-oriented medical history-taking for radiologists of all training levels.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20, 1090, Vienna, Austria. martina.scharitzer@meduniwien.ac.at.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-4427-5463
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scharitzer
authors.affiliation: Unified Patient Project, Teaching Center, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pokieser
authors.affiliation: Teaching Center, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Michaela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wagner-Menghin
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Hospital Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Ferdinand
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Otto
authors.affiliation: Department of Translational Medicine, Division of Medical Radiology, Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden.
authors.forename: Olle
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ekberg
mesh_terms: D003680:Deglutition Disorders / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003697:Delphi Technique; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008487:Medical History Taking / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Deglutition; Deglutition disorders; Medical history-taking; Questionnaire