Reliability of Speaking and Maximum Voice Range Measures in Screening for Dysphonia

Abstract

Speech range profile (SRP) is a graphical display of frequency-intensity occurring interactions during functional speech activity. Few studies have suggested the potential clinical applications of SRP. However, these studies are limited to qualitative case comparisons and vocally healthy participants. The present study aimed to examine the effects of voice disorders on speaking and maximum voice ranges in a group of vocally untrained women. It also aimed to examine whether voice limit measures derived from SRP were as sensitive as those derived from voice range profile (VRP) in distinguishing dysphonic from healthy voices. Ninety dysphonic women with laryngeal pathologies and 35 women with normal voices, who served as controls, participated in this study. Each subject recorded a VRP for her physiological vocal limits. In addition, each subject read aloud the "North Wind and the Sun" passage to record SRP. All the recordings were captured and analyzed by Soundswell's computerized real-time phonetogram Phog 1.0 (Hitech Development AB, Täby, Sweden). The SRPs and the VRPs were compared between the two groups of subjects. Univariate analysis results demonstrated that individual SRP measures were less sensitive than the corresponding VRP measures in discriminating dysphonic from normal voices. However, stepwise logistic regression analyses revealed that the combination of only two SRP measures was almost as effective as a combination of three VRP measures in predicting the presence of dysphonia (overall prediction accuracy: 93.6% for SRP vs 96.0% for VRP). These results suggest that in a busy clinic where quick voice screening results are desirable, SRP can be an acceptable alternate procedure to VRP.

How Do Teachers With Self-Reported Voice Problems Differ From Their Peers With Self-Reported Voice Health?

“…The analysis of the VRP followed the procedure described in Ma et al [35]. All VRPs were measured by the same author (VLÅ).…”

Características da fonetografia em mulheres com equilíbrio dentofacial

“…As medidas de todas as frequências apresentadas na abscissa do fonetograma obtidas pelo VRP na fonetografia (Figura 1) foram convertidas de Hertz para semitom, a fim de permitir a realização do cálculo da área do fonetograma, por ser o semitom uma medida linear e apresentar intervalos regulares em escala musical de 12 semitons, o que não ocorre com o Hz, que é uma medida exponencial. Além disso, os valores de extensão vocal na literatura vêm sendo utilizados em semitons (4,7,9,10,(15)(16)(17)(18) , possibilitando comparações posteriores.…”

Características da fonetografia em indivíduos com equilíbrio dentofacial pós-muda vocal

“…It was described by Damsté 1 and, in 1983; the Union of European Speech Language Pathologists proposed that this to be done as part of the evaluation of the voice of individuals with normal voices 2 . This exam may be performed manually or computerized 3 , and provides information on the profile of vocal range, through the definition of an area between the intensities obtained from the minimum and maximum frequencies of the vocal range [4][5][6] .…”

“…The literature has documented the use of phonetography to distinguish normal vocal voices 5,7,8 , documenting changes in voice due to fatigue, and to evaluate the change in vocal quality after voice therapy 4 , or vocal training for singing 6,9 . Specifically regarding the standardization of benchmarks, there are studies for the Thai population 10 , German 11 and Finnish…”

“…The exam started in C 3 (dó 3 The measures from all frequencies given in the abscissa of the phonetogram obtained by VRP in the phonetography ( Figure 1) were converted from Hertz to semitone in order to allow the calculation of the phonetogram area, for being the semitone a linear measure which presents regular intervals in musical scale in 12 semitones, which does not occur with Hertz, which is an exponential measure. Moreover, the values of the vocal range in the literature have been used in semitones 5,8,13,23,24 , enabling later comparisons.…”