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Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica
Journal Prestige (SJR): 0.517

Citation Impact (citeScore): 1
Number of Followers: 1

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ISSN (Print) 1021-7762 - ISSN (Online) 1421-9972
Published by Karger

[122 journals]

A Study of Voice Handicap and Acoustic Measures in Arab Kuwaiti
Prospective Professional Singers
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  Abstract: Introduction: Despite its clinical significance, few studies have explored the applicability of the validated Arabic version of the Voice Handicap Index (VHI-Arab) in professional voice users, especially singers. The correlation between VHI-Arab scores and acoustic measures in this targeted group remains unclear. The aim of this study was to explore Arab Kuwaiti prospective professional singers’ perception of voice handicap using the validated VHI-Arab. Additionally, we examined the association between VHI-Arab scores and acoustic measures such as fundamental frequency (F0), shimmer, jitter, and signal-to-noise ratio. Methods: VHI-Arab scores and acoustic measures of 100 adult prospective professional singers (50 females and 50 males) were compared with those of 100 adult controls (50 females and 50 males). Results: Female prospective professional singers differed significantly from female controls in terms of functional and physical subscale scores, total VHI-Arab scores, and shimmer and jitter values. Male prospective professional singers neither showed significant differences in VHI-Arab scores nor in acoustic measures; however, their shimmer values showed significant difference. There was no correlation between VHI-Arab scores and acoustic measures. Conclusion: Kuwaiti prospective professional singers did not perceive their voice as handicapped. Female prospective professional singers had a better perception of their voice compared with female controls. The results of the current study suggest that the perception of voice handicap and acoustic measures are different attributes that do not correlate
  
  PubDate: Mon, 09 May 2022 10:40:44 +020
Erratum
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  Abstract:
  Folia Phoniatr Logop
  PubDate: Tue, 12 Apr 2022 08:01:52 +020
Perception of children’s productions of /l/: Acoustic correlates and
effects of listener experience
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  Abstract: Introduction: The aim of the current study was to examine the effect of listeners’ experience with child speech and phonetic training on perceptual judgment of children’s word-initial /l/ productions. The acoustic correlates of acceptable and misarticulated productions of /l/ and their relation to listeners’ experience with child speech were explored.Methods: Three listener groups listened to children’s word-initial /l/ productions embedded in monosyllabic words and judged the “/l/-likeness” of the productions using a Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Three listener groups included a) speech-language pathologists with at least 10 years of experience (SLP group), b) graduate students in speech-language pathology (GS group), and c) naïve listeners with no clinical phonetics experience (NL group). Acoustic correlates (both static and dynamic measures) of listeners’ perception of /l/ sounds were also investigated. Results: While mean VAS ratings did not differ significantly by listener group, the SLP group used a wider range of the VAS than the GS and NL groups. Correlational analysis between the static measure (F2-F1 values) and mean listener ratings showed that listeners tend to perceive sounds with the highest F2-F1 values more as /j/ than /l/, while those with the lowest F2-F1 value were perceived more as /w/ than /l/, especially for sounds that are in between phonemic categories. Listener ratings were not highly correlated with dynamic measures.Conclusion: These results indicate that more experienced listeners use a VAS to indicate perception of subphonemic features of children's productions of /l/ than less experienced listeners, and that these ratings correlate with acoustic measures. Furthermore, listeners with experience with child speech and phonetic training are more sensitive to subphonemic features of children’s productions of /l/, especially for misarticulated productions. This supports the clinical use of visual analog scales for perceptual judgments of children's /l/ productions.
  
  PubDate: Fri, 01 Apr 2022 10:33:23 +020
3Effect of FFP2+3 masks on voice range profile measurement and voice
acoustics in routine voice diagnostics
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  Abstract: Introduction: Voice diagnostics including voice range profile measurement (VRP) and acoustic voice analysis is essential in laryngology and phoniatrics. Due to Covid-19 pandemic, wearing of filtering face masks (FFP2/3) is recommended when high risk aerosol generating procedures like singing and speaking are being performed. Goal of this study was to compare VRP parameters when performed without and with FFP2/3 masks. Further, formant analysis for sustained vowels, singer’s formant and analysis of reading standard text samples were performed without/with FFP2/3 masks.Methods: 20 subjects (6 male and 14 female) were enrolled in this study with an average age of 36±16 y (mean ± SD). 14 patients were rated as euphonic/not hoarse and 6 patients as mildly hoarse. All subjects underwent the VRP measurements, vowel and text recordings without/with FFP2/3 mask using the software DiVAS by XION medical (Berlin, Germany).Voice range of singing voice, equivalent of voice extension measure (eVEM), fundamental frequency (F0), sound pressure level (SPL) of soft speaking and shouting were calculated and analyzed. Maximum phonation time (MPT) and jitter-% were included for Dysphonia Severity Index (DSI) measurement. Analyses of singer’s formant were performed. Spectral analyses of sustained vowels /a:/, /i:/ and /u:/ (first=F1 and second=F2 formants), intensity of long term average spectrum (LTAS) and alpha-ratio (α-ratio) were calculated using the freeware praat.Results: For all subjects the mean values of routine voice parameters without/with mask were analyzed: no significant differences were found in results of singing voice range, eVEM. SPL and frequency of soft speaking/shouting, except significant lower mean SPL of shouting with FFP2/3 mask, in particular that of the female subjects (p=0.002). Results of MPT, jitter and DSI without/with FFP2/3 mask showed no significant differences. Further mean values analyzed without/with mask were: ratio singer’s formant/loud singing, with lower ratio with FFP2/3 mask (p=0.001). F1 and F2 of /a:/, /i:/, /u:/, with no significant differences of the results, with the exception of F2 of /i:/ with lower value with FFP2/3 mask (p=0.005). With the exceptions mentioned, the t-test revealed no significant differences for each of the routine parameters tested in the recordings without and with wearing a FFP2/3 mask. Conclusion: It can be concluded, that VRP measurements including DSI performed with FFP2/3 masks provide reliable data in clinical routine with respect to voice condition/constitution. Spectral analyses of sustained vowel, text and singer’s formant will be affected by wearing FFP2/3 masks.
  
  PubDate: Mon, 28 Mar 2022 15:06:46 +020
Clinician and Patient Perception of a Voice Therapy Program Utilizing a
Variably-Occluded Face Mask: A Pilot Study
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  Abstract: Objective: The purpose of this investigation was to assess clinician and patient feedback about voice therapy using a variably occluded face mask (VOFM), and to determine if voice therapy augmented via a VOFM would result in favorable changes in patient self-perceived handicap, as well as acoustic and aerodynamic measures. Methods/Design: Pilot, prospective, pre-post single group design. Eleven patients with dysphonia due to primary muscle tension dysphonia (8) or benign vocal fold lesions (3) were recruited. Data collected included patient and clinician feedback of voice therapy using a VOFM, voice handicap index (VHI)-10, acoustic and aerodynamic measures. Data were collected before treatment (baseline) and one-week post therapy. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare data pre and post therapy.Results: Statistically significant improvement was observed for the VHI-10 with a median delta of -7. Clinician feedback generally reported that patients like the VOFM, using the VOFM within the first two sessions of therapy, and within less than 10 minutes of use. All clinicians ranked the conversation level of the hierarchy as the most effective level. Three themes emerged from the Therapy Feedback Form: the SOFM was a 1) “Facilitator for Sensation,” 2) a “Physical Tool”; and that there was 3) “No Program Needed” to use the VOFM in voice therapy. There was a statistically significant improvement in CPP (p=0.0329) and CSID (p=0.0164) in sustained vowels. Discussion: This pilot study represents the first investigation into clinician and patient perceptions of using a variably occluded face mask (VOFM). Reported measures via patient perception, as well as clinician perceptions, and some acoustic and aerodynamic measures showed that participants got better with VOFM voice therapy. Last, in general, both clinicians and patients liked utilizing a VOFM in voice therapy.
  
  PubDate: Thu, 24 Feb 2022 09:08:08 +010
Chaos Behavior Analysis of Alaryngeal Voices Including Esophageal (SE) and
Tracheoesophageal (TE) Voices
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  Abstract: ABSTRACTHypothesis/ObjectivesThis study’s objective was to develop a method to the evaluate the chaotic characteristic of alaryngeal speech. The proposed method will be capable of distinguishing between normal and alaryngeal voices, including esophageal (SE) and tracheoesophageal (TE) voices. It has been previously shown that alaryngeal voices exhibit chaotic characteristics due to the aperiodicity of their signals. The proposed method will be applied for future use to quantify both chaos behavior and the difference between SE and TE voices. Study Design A total of 74 voice recordings including 34 normal and 40 alaryngeal (26 esophageal (SE) and 14 tracheoesophageal (TE)) were used in the study. Voice samples were analyzed to distinguish alaryngeal voices from normal voices and investigate different chaotic characteristics of SE and TE speech.MethodsA chaotic distribution detection-based method was used to investigate the chaos behavior of alaryngeal voices. This chaos behavior was used to detect the difference between SE and TE voice types. Quantification of the chaos behavior (CB) parameter was performed. Statistical analyses were used to compare the results of the CB analysis for both the SE and TE voices. ResultsStatistical analysis revealed that CB effectively differentiated between all normal and alaryngeal voice types (P
  PubDate: Thu, 20 Jan 2022 09:23:39 +010
Complications during Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing (FEES)
in 5680 examinations
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  Abstract: Objective: To evaluate retrospectively the incidence of complications during Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing (FEES) in 5680 examinations. Patients and Methods: 5680 patients were evaluated at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Audiology and Phoniatrics of Pisa University Hospital between January 2014 and December 2018, involving both inpatients and outpatients. Most common comorbidities included neurological pathologies such as stroke (11.8%), neurodegenerative diseases (28.9%) and a history of previous head and neck surgery (24.6%). The evaluation was conducted by clinicians with experience in swallowing for a minimum of 10 years with the assistance of one or more speech language pathologists. Results: In all patients studied the endoscope insertion was tolerated and it was possible to visualize the pharyngo-laryngeal structures. Most patients reported discomfort In a minority of patients, complications were recorded, such as anterior epistaxis, posterior epistaxis, vasovagal crises and laryngospasm. Laryngospasm was recorded in patients affected by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Multivariate binary logistic regression showed that discomfort, chronic gastrointestinal diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and brain tumors were risk factors associated with minor complications. Conclusions: FEES proved to be easy to perform, well tolerated by the patients and cost-effective. It can be performed at the patient’s bedside and it is characterized by low rate of complications. As a matter of fact, normally only discomfort, gagging and/or vomit are reported. Only rarely complications occur, such as anterior or posterior epistaxis episodes or vasovagal crises, but these are still easily managed. Exceptionally, more severe complications are reported: adverse drug reactions to substances such as blue dye (methylene blue) and local anesthetics (not used in our protocol), and laryngospasm.
  
  PubDate: Mon, 17 Jan 2022 08:43:05 +010
Picture description in the assessment of connected speech intelligibility
in Parkinson's disease: A pilot study
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  Abstract: Introduction: Assessment of intelligibility in dysarthria tends to rely on oral reading of sentences or words. However, self-generated utterances are closer to a clients’ natural speech. This study investigated how transcription of utterances elicited by picture description can be used in the assessment of intelligibility in speakers with Parkinson’s disease.Methods: Speech samples from eleven speakers with Parkinson’s disease and six neurologically healthy persons were audio-recorded. Forty-two naive listeners completed transcriptions of self-generated sentences from a picture description task and orally read sentences from the Swedish Test of Intelligibility, as well as scaled ratings of narrative speech samples.Results: Intelligibility was higher in orally read than self-generated sentences and higher for content words than for the whole sentence in self-generated sentences for most of the speakers, although these within-group differences were not statistically significant at group level. Adding contextual leads for the listeners increased intelligibility in self-generated utterances significantly, but with individual variation. Although correlations between the intelligibility measures were at least moderate or strong, there was a considerable inter- and intra-speaker variability in intelligibility scores between tasks for the speakers with Parkinson’s disease, indicating individual variation of factors that impact intelligibility. Intelligibility scores from neurologically healthy speakers were generally high across tasks with no significant differences between the conditions.Discussion/Conclusion: Within-speaker variability support literature recommendations to use multiple methods and tasks when assessing intelligibility. The inclusion of transcription of self-generated utterances elicited by picture description to the intelligibility assessment has the potential to provide additional information to assessment methods based on oral reading of pre-scripted sentences, and to inform the planning of interventions.
  
  PubDate: Wed, 12 Jan 2022 13:58:38 +010
Acknowledgement to the Reviewers
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  Abstract:
  Folia Phoniatr Logop 2021;73:595–596
  PubDate: Wed, 08 Dec 2021 06:21:43 +010