Spectral-cepstral estimation of dysphonia severity: external validation

Area of Science:

• Speech and Hearing Sciences
• Acoustic Analysis
• Voice Disorders

Background:

• Dysphonia severity assessment often relies on subjective listener perception.
• Objective acoustic measures are needed for reliable and reproducible evaluation of voice quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To externally validate the Cepstral Spectral Index of Dysphonia (CSID) as an objective acoustic measure of dysphonia severity.
• To assess the correlation between the CSID and trained listener-perceptions of voice severity.

Main Methods:

• The study analyzed acoustic features using cepstral and spectral analyses to derive the CSID.
• Correlation analysis (Pearson's r) was performed between CSID values and Consensus Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Voice (CAPE-V) severity ratings.
• Data were collected from 56 patients before or after thyroid surgery, using sentence and sustained vowel samples.

Main Results:

• A strong positive correlation (r = 0.82; p < 0.001) was found between mean CSID values and perceived voice severity.
• CSID values showed no significant difference from auditory-perceptual ratings of dysphonia severity (p = 0.16).

Conclusions:

• The CSID, an acoustic algorithm, is externally validated as a robust correlate of dysphonia severity.
• The findings support the use of CSID as an objective tool for assessing overall voice quality.