Correlating Undiagnosed Hearing Impairment with Hyperfunctional Dysphonia

Area of Science:

• Otolaryngology
• Speech-Language Pathology
• Audiology

Background:

• Hyperfunctional dysphonia is a voice disorder often treated in voice clinics.
• Undiagnosed hearing impairment can affect voice production and quality.
• Assessing co-occurring conditions is crucial for comprehensive patient care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the prevalence of undiagnosed hearing impairment in patients with hyperfunctional dysphonia.
• To explore correlations between voice disorder severity and acoustic markers of hearing impairment.

Main Methods:

• 36 patients with hyperfunctional dysphonia underwent voice assessments (clinical rating, VHI, acoustic analysis).
• Pure tone audiometry was performed to diagnose hearing impairment.
• Data were analyzed to identify co-occurrence and correlations.

Main Results:

• 33% of patients with hyperfunctional dysphonia had newly diagnosed hearing impairment.
• No significant acoustic profile differences were found between hearing impaired and non-hearing impaired groups.
• Pitch perturbation (jitter) correlation was absent in subjects with both conditions.

Conclusions:

• Hearing impairment alters the physiological regulation of pitch perturbation.
• Pitch and amplitude perturbation appear to be regulated by distinct mechanisms.