RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: The aim was to describe the acoustic, auditory-perceptive, and subjective voice changes under the Lombard effect (LE) in adductor laryngeal dystonia (AdLD) patients. METHODS: Subjective perception of vocal effort (OMNI Vocal Effort Scale OMNI-VES), Maximum Phonation Time (MPT), and the perceptual severity of dysphonia (GRBAS scale) were assessed in condition of stillness and under LE in 10 AdLD patients and in 10 patients with typical voice. Speakers were asked to produce the sustained vowel /a/ and to read a phonetically balanced text aloud. Using the PRAAT software, the following acoustic parameters were analyzed: Mean Pitch (Hz), Minimum and Maximum Intensity (dB), the Fraction of Locally Unvoiced Frames, the Number of Voice Breaks, the Degree of Voice Breaks (%), the Cepstral Peak Prominence-Smoothed (CPPS) (dB). RESULTS: Under LE, the AdLD group showed a decrease of both G and S parameters of GRBAS and subjective effort, mean MPT increased significantly; in the controls there were no significant changes. In both groups under LE, pitch and intensity of the sustained vowel /a/ significantly increased consistently with LE. In the AdLD group the mean gain of OMNI-VES score and the mean gain of each parameter of the speech analysis were significantly greater than the controls' ones. CONCLUSION: Auditory feedback deprivation obtained under LE improves subjective, perceptual-auditory, and acoustics parameters of AdLD patients. These findings encourage further research to provide new knowledge into the role of the auditory system in the pathogenesis of AdLD and to develop new therapeutic strategies. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4 Laryngoscope, 2024.
RESUMO
OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to investigate the validity (both concurrent and diagnostic) and test-retest reliability of Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI) version 2 (AVQI 02.06) in Turkish speaking population. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred and fifty five native Turkish subjects with normal voices (n = 128) and with voice disorders (n = 127) were asked to sustain the vowel [a:] and read aloud the Turkish phonetically balanced text. To determine the test-retest reliability of AVQI, 20 dysphonic (ie, around 15% of the group), and 20 normophonic (ie, around 15% of the group) were reassessed 15 minutes after the first AVQI determination. A three middle seconds of sustained vowel [a:] and a sentence with 25 syllables was concatenated, and AVQI analysis was conducted. The auditory-perceptual evaluation was performed by five experienced raters with Grade (G) from GRBAS Protocol. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant correlation between AVQI scores and auditory-perceptual evaluation of overall voice quality (rs = 0.717, P < 0.001). AVQI gave a threshold of 2.98 for the dysphonic voice. The values of intraclass correlation coefficient with two-way mixed-effects model, single-measures type, absolute agreement definition showed an excellent test-retest reliability for AVQI in Turkish language (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.986). CONCLUSION: AVQI v.02.06 is a valid and robust tool in differentiating dysphonic and normal voice, and has excellent test-retest reliability in Turkish language.
