Inter-device reliability of DSI measurement.

Area of Science:

• Otolaryngology
• Speech-Language Pathology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• The Dysphonia Severity Index (DSI) is a key metric for assessing vocal quality.
• Reliable measurement of vocal parameters is essential for diagnosing and managing voice disorders.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the inter-device reliability of Dysphonia Severity Index (DSI) measurements.
• To determine if different devices yield comparable DSI values for clinical interpretation.

Main Methods:

• DSI measurements were taken from 30 subjects using two distinct devices: LingWAVES (WEVOSYS) and DiVAS (XION).
• Inter-device reliability was assessed by comparing DSI results obtained from both systems for each participant.

Main Results:

• Significant differences were observed in DSI values between the LingWAVES and DiVAS devices.
• Ninety-five percent of subjects exhibited DSI differences within the range of +2.39 to -2.82.
• These discrepancies raise concerns about the clinical interpretation of voice disorder severity when using different measurement devices.

Conclusions:

• The current study highlights substantial variability in DSI measurements across different devices.
• The findings suggest that the clinical interpretation of voice disorder severity using DSI may be unreliable due to inter-device differences.
• Establishing standardized hardware and software protocols for DSI measurement is recommended to ensure consistent and dependable vocal quality assessment.