Voice Characteristics in Patients with Thyroid Disorders

Abstract

Aims and Scope Eurasian Journal of Medicine (Eurasian J Med) is an international, scientific, open access periodical published by independent, unbiased, and tripleblinded peer-review principles. The journal is the official publication of

Voice changes in reproductive disorders, thyroid disorders and diabetes: a review

“…Reversely, the remission of described symptoms in the post-treatment period leads to the higher fundamental frequency, as it was proved in the research by Birkent et al ( 33 ). However, the analysis presented by Junuzović-Žunić et al ( 34 )surprisingly did not confirm this hypothesis. Another difference concerning study group characteristics occurs in the analysis carried out by Birkent et al ( 33 ), where the cause of hypothyroidism in all patients was a thyroidectomy due to thyroid carcinoma, which was an exclusion criterion in other studies.…”

“…In a similar analysis, Junuzović-Žunić et al ( 34 ) compared the acoustic and perceptual parameters in a pre- and post-treatment period of female patients with hypothyroidism, as well as women with hyperthyroidism. Concerning acoustic parameters, in hypothyroid patients, as opposed to Birkent’s results, this research did not reveal the significant change in a value describing fundamental frequency after treatment.…”

“…Moreover, the participants of the research by Birkent et al ( 33 ) had a relatively short history of hypothyroidism spanning 6 weeks between the surgery and pre-treatment voice assessment, which might be a too short period to observe vocal changes due to insufficient thyroid hormones concentration. Furthermore, the post-treatment assessment of vocal parameters in this study was performed after 2 months of hormonal replacement therapy, while in research by Junuzović-Žunić et al ( 34 ), the evaluation took place after 6 months of treatment.…”

“…On the other hand, the research conducted by Ersoz Unlu et al ( 32 ) compared the healthy participants not only to the group of overtly hypothyroid but also subclinically hypothyroid females. What is interesting is the studies conducted by Birkent et al and Junuzović-Žunić et al ( 33 , 34 ) also compared acoustic parameters in the hypo- and euthyroid group, with the difference that the study and control group concerned the same patients before and after the proper treatment. The common finding in studies carried out by Mohammadzaneh et al , Ersoz Unlu et al and Birkent et al ( 31 , 32 , 33 ) was significantly lower fundamental frequency in a state of hypothyroidism.…”

“…In terms of perceptual evaluation, in the research conducted by Mohammadzaneh et al ( 31 ), the participant’s speech disorders were assessed with no standardized questionnaire, which enables comparing this analysis to the results obtained by Junuzović-Žunić et al ( 34 ) and Ersoz Unlu et al ( 32 ), where the GRBAS scale was used. However, the results of those two latter studies also differ from each other, since Ersoz Unlu et al ( 32 ) did not describe any differences between the two study groups and the healthy individuals and Junuzović-Žunić et al ( 34 ) found some changes in the perceptual evaluation of hypothyroid patients’ voice. Unfortunately, the study by Junuzović-Žunić et al ( 34 ) does not demonstrate the detailed statistical analysis of the data devoted to perceptual evaluation, describing the trend of each parameter with the word ‘different’ instead of explaining whether the discussed perceptual feature decreased or increased.…”