Acoustic analysis of dysarthria profile in ALS patients

Dysarthria is a leading disability in ALS patients with motor neurone degeneration in the bulbar region. Although different approaches have been tried in the past, currently, no test is available to detect and follow the progression of dysarthria. We studied 53 patients with definite (n=27) or probable (n=26) ALS (the bulbar onset group n=15, the limb onset group n=38, mean age 53. 66/29-76 years/) according to El Escorial criteria. Each patient was seen by a neurologist every 10-12 weeks and clinical performance was assessed using the Norris scale. To evaluate dysarthria we developed a computer-based acoustic method. All patients had computer-analysed speech sound tests done three times. The most significantly affected vowels were selected for further studies. A method based on the Euclidian principle was used and the results were compared with 30 age, sex-matched, healthy control subjects. Our results demonstrated the existence of a specific dysarthria profile in ALS patients with most significantly affected vowels: 'B', 'O', 'I', 'W', 'T' in the bulbar group, and: 'B', 'I', 'T', 'W', 'O' in the limb group. This study suggests that it is possible to detect and monitor the progression of the disease based on the acoustic analysis of only several sounds. Abnormalities detected in the dysarthria profile may appear prior to any clinical symptoms of the disease.