Laryngeal and Voice Disorders in Patients with Pulmonary Tuberculosis

Laryngeal tuberculosis (LTB) is the most frequent granulomatous disease of the larynx. The aim of the present work was to study the laryngostroboscopic features and voice quality of patients with laryngeal TB secondary to pulmonary TB.

Participants were 35 patients diagnosed as having pulmonary TB and dysphonia. All patients had a complete history, clinical and laboratory workup. Patients were assessed using a protocol of voice assessment which included Auditory-perceptual analysis of voice, voice analysis using the Multidimensional Voice Profile (MDVP), and laryngostroboscopy.

The participants were 24 males and 11 females and their mean age was 43.7 years. The voice acoustic analysis revealed a significant difference from normal in jitter percent, shimmer percent, and harmonic to noise (H/N) ratio. Laryngeal gross lesions were found in 11 patients while the other 24 patients had normal laryngoscopic findings with nonspecific stroboscopic changes as reduced mucosal waves and mild glottic gap. Diffuse lesion of the whole vocal folds was found in 5 patients and anterior predilection in 4 patients. The type of lesions were granulomatous lesions in 7 patients and non-specific inflammatory mild exophytic lesions in 4 patients.

Voice disorders in pulmonary TB include disturbance in the mechanism of voice production with or without detectable laryngeal lesion. Videostroboscopy has the advantage of showing the extension of laryngeal involvement, vocal folds vibrations, and mucosal waves.