Annotated images from the normal barium swallow.
Oral phase: base of tongue (red arrow) apposed to the soft palate (dark blue bracket). There is no premature spillage into the pharynx. The hard palate is demarcated by the purple bracket.
Oral phase, normal anatomy: hyoid bone (blue arrow), laryngeal vestibule/aditus (yellow bracket), air in the laryngeal ventricle between the true and false vocal cords (green arrow), proximal trachea (red bracket).
Pharyngeal phase: Normal epiglottic tilt (pink arrow), normal redundant pharyngeal mucosa (orange arrow). Soft palate opposed to nasopharynx prevents nasopharyngeal reflux. Barium proceeds down the cervical oesophagus.
After initial barium swallow: red arrows pointing to the base of the tongue (above) and the outline of the epiglottis (below). Valleculae (V). Pyriform sinus (P).
Division of the mesopharynx (above) and hypopharynx (below).
Red line parallels the faint palatoglossal fold. Yellow line parallels the faint stylopharyngeus muscle. The pink arrow points to the aryepiglottic folds.