[Smokers' edema of the vocal cords]

The purpose of this study was the analysis of the etiology, clinical and phonatory characteristics in the subjects with Reinke's oedema. The research was done on 105 subjects, of whom 95 women and 10 men of the age between 28 and 83. The results show that according to the sex, the frequency of the Reinke's oedema is higher in women than in men. The disturbances, not according to the sex, appear mostly in the age between 40 and 60. The voice disturbances last usually for some years. Most of the subjects were smokers (80%) which confirms that smoking (with great intensity and for many years) is the main etiological factor in the development of Reinke's oedema. Less important are considered the voice loadings of long duration, while allergy and acute respiratory infection are mentioned as the possible factors. The values of the phonatory index show less effective air usage during the phonation in the subjects. From the tridimensional spectral analysis of voice that was done on 44 women and 4 men, the data about the frequency of the fundamental laryngeal tone (f degree) were taken. Analysing these data, the lower values of the frequency of the fundamental laryngeal tone were found. The elaboration with the Student's t-test was obtained a statistically important difference of the mentioned parameter in both sexes among the subjects and persons with normal voice. We can conclude that the alteration of the phonatory function is present and in consequence of that, the voice is not effective in communication and less valorous in the media.