PURPOSE: to assess the perception of bitter, sour, sweet and neutral flavors in stroke patients. METHOD: we studied 36 patients with stroke (5 hemorrhagic and 31 ischemic) and had a 30 subjects' control group. W performed a structural and functional oral and pharyngeal evaluation including posture, lip sealing, presence of residues, cough, choking, and cervical auscultation. Five ml of fluids with the 4 flavors ["boldus" tea (bitter), diluted lemon juice (sour), diluted sucrose (sweet), and water (neutral)] were offered in random sequence under room temperature. Participants were questioned, between swallows, on the difficulty in swallowing and which flavor they had just swallowed. RESULTS: patients with stroke had greater difficulty in swallowing the fluids than control group (p<0.04). Patients made more mistakes in identifying bitter (control: 16.7%, stroke: 47.3%, p=0.01) and sour (control: 6.7%, stroke: 27.8%, p=0.05) flavors, without differences in the identification of neutral (control: 10.0%, stroke: 167%, p=0.50) and sweet (control: 13.3%, stroke: 16.7%, p=0,80). CONCLUSION: the group with stroke had more difficulty in perceiving bitter and sour flavors than the control group subjects.
Deglutition; Deglutition Disorders; Stroke
