The Usefulness of Ambulatory Phonation Monitoring(APM) / 대한이비인후과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The use of voice can be a cause of common voice disorders but may also affect the course of treatment. The information of voice use has been limited by relying on the subjective patient self-report in the past. In this study, however, we tried to determine the effectiveness of ambulatory phonation monitoring, which can provide objective vocal use parameters such as phonation time, fundamental frequency and sound pressure level. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Four subjects (2; normal, 2; vocal disease) were recorded with Ambulatory Phonation Monitor Model 3,200 (KayPENTAX) during a working day. Ambulatory Phonation Monitor (APM) is an unobtrusive, portable device consisting of a small accelerometer, a microprocessor and the APM software. All subjects were instructed to wear APM during the entire day of normal activities and write an activity diary according to time. RESULTS: APM data displays 5 graphs which reveal important characteristics of each subject's phonatory behavior throughout the day. The patient's diary can provide the person's schedule and the correlation between subject's self recognition and the objective data analyzed by APM. CONCLUSION: APM is an overall useful device for measuring phonation parameters and evaluating voice behaviors in natural conditions. It can be used not only for the diagnosis of vocal diseases but also as a voice therapy for feedback on voice use.