Glottal Stop Production in Controls and Patients With Unilateral Vocal Fold Paresis/Paralysis

Area of Science:

• Laryngology
• Acoustic analysis
• Speech pathology

Background:

• Unilateral vocal fold paresis/paralysis (UVFP) presents diagnostic challenges.
• Objective measures are needed to assess UVFP and treatment outcomes.
• False vocal fold (FVF) movement is a potential compensatory mechanism in UVFP.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if acoustic measures of glottal stops can distinguish between controls and UVFP patients.
• To explore false vocal fold (FVF) movement patterns during glottal stops in UVFP.
• To assess agreement between objective measures and patient-reported voice normalization.

Main Methods:

• Acoustic and laryngoscopic recordings of glottal stops in UVFP patients and controls.
• Measurement of intensity differences and slopes for glottal stop onsets and offsets.
• Rating of FVF movement and calculation of Cohen's kappas for agreement analysis.

Main Results:

• Significant acoustic differences were found between controls and UVFP patients, and between initial and post-treatment evaluations.
• FVF movement patterns varied, with a notable percentage of UVFP patients exhibiting bilateral dynamic FVF movement post-treatment.
• Moderate agreement was observed between voice normalization and Voice-Related Quality of Life (V-RQOL), with slight to fair agreement for acoustic measures.

Conclusions:

• Acoustic measures of glottal stops show promise as a tool to differentiate UVFP from controls.
• These acoustic measures can potentially monitor changes following treatment or observation in UVFP patients.
• The findings support the use of acoustic glottal stop analysis for UVFP assessment.