Medications and Voice

Laryngeal motion abnormality

A motion abnormality of larynx is defined as

i.                    any increase or decrease in vocal fold adductory mobility, abductory mobility, or longitudinal stretch of the vocal folds;

ii.                  asymmetry in vocal fold adduction, abduction, or longitudinal stretch of the vocal folds;

iii.                spontaneous laryngeal activity;

iv.                involuntary laryngeal activity;

v.                  laryngeal dysdiadokinesis;

vi.                laryngeal bradykinesia;

vii.              laryngeal rigidity;

viii.            laryngeal dysmetria.

Involvement of Ear in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Involvement of Ear in Rheumatoid Arthritis. Prospective Clinical StudyObjective: To investigate the relationship of the degree of hearing loss seen in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and biochemical findings of the disease.
Materials and methods: This study was carried out with 44 RA patients and 44 voluntary healthy controls between November 2006 and June 2007. All members underwent audiometry and impedance audiometry. The duration of the disease, the drugs used for the disease and the biochemical findings of the patients were noted. 
Results: Presbyacusis type sensorial hearing loss was detected in 27.3% of the patients and 15.9% in controls. Subclinic conductive hearing loss was seen in 56.8% of the patients and 25% of controls (p<0.01) and much more at frequencies of 500 Hz and 1000 Hz. The reason of this was seemed as the stiffness of the ossicular chain in patients.
Conclusion: Sensorineural hearing loss in RA is like presbyacusis and not statistically significant. However especially subclinic conductive pattern of hearing loss at low frequencies may be an indicator to predict the ossicular joint involvement in RA patients.

Int. Adv. Otol. 2011; 7(2): 208-214.

Adverse Effect of Noise on Voice Perturbation Estimates: A Comparison of Three Voice Analysis Programs

doi: 10.5336/medsci.2010-19461
Turkiye Klinikleri J Med Sci 2011;31(2):427-31
Mehmet Akif KILIÇ MD, Haldun OĞUZ MD, Fatih ÖĞÜT MD.
Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the influence of noise on voice perturbation outputs obtained by three different voice analysis programs, and to show the software more immune to noise.
Material and Methods: For this purpose, 10 natural and 10 semi-synthetic voice samples were recorded. They were mixed with environmental noise and white noise. The unmixed and mixed signals were analyzed by Dr. Speech, MDVP and Praat. Three frequency perturbation outputs (jitter percent, relative average perturbation and pitch perturbation quotient) and two amplitude perturbation outputs (shimmer percent and amplitude perturbation quotient) were obtained. The unmixed and mixed signals were compared. Correlations were calculated between natural unmixed and natural mixed ones.
Results: The frequency perturbation outputs obtained by Dr. Speech and Praat seemed to be less affected by noise. However, the amplitude perturbation values measured by three systems were severely affected by noise, but Praat's performance found mildly better than the others'. Correlation analyses for 10 items (five parameters x two noise situations) revealed that there were perfect correlations (r= 1.000) regarding six items for Praat, three items for Dr. Speech and one item for MDVP.
Conclusion: As a conclusion, it was decided that Praat was the most immune one to noise among three analysis systems, followed by Dr. Speech and MDVP, respectively.

Surgical Techniques in ENT

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

International "Surgical Techniques in ENT" meeting will be held on 22-24 April, 2011. The meeting site is Ephesus/Kusadasi, Turkey. The official meeting language is English. Please find additional details at www.ent2011.org. If you need additional information do not hesitate to contact me.

I would be very pleased if you could kindly share this information with your friends and colleagues.

Sincerely,

Haldun OGUZ, M.D., Associate Professor of Otolaryngology

Scientific Secretary

+ 90 533 300 00 00

www.ent2011.org

Perceptual evaluation of voice quality: review, tutorial, and a framework for future research

The reliability of listeners' ratings of voice quality is a central issue in voice research because of the clinical primacy of such ratings and because they are the standard against which other measures are evaluated. However, an extensive literature review indicates that both intrarater and interrater reliability fluctuate greatly from study to study. Further, our own data indicate that ratings of vocal roughness vary widely across individual clinicians, with a single voice often receiving nearly the full range of possible ratings. No model or theoretical framework currently exists to explain these variations, although such a model might guide development of efficient, valid, and standardized clinical protocols for voice evaluation. We propose a theoretical framework that attributes variability in ratings to several sources (including listeners' backgrounds and biases, the task used to gather ratings, interactions between listeners and tasks, and random error). This framework may guide development of new clinical voice and speech evaluation protocols, ultimately leading to more reliable perceptual ratings and a better understanding of the perceptual qualities of pathological voices. Kreiman J et al. JSHR, 1993; 36:21-40.

The reliability and validity of patient self-rating of their own voice quality

According to Lee et al. patients appear to have good validity and consistency using GRBAS as a self-perception tool. This tool is used among clinicians to subjectively assess the general and partial quality of voice. Although, consistent among themselves, patients do not have an agreement with clinicians. Patients and clinicians have an inter-rater agreement no better than chance and they rated consistently more severely than clinicians. Full text: Lee M, et al. The reliability and validity of patient self-rating of their own voice quality. Clin Otolaryngol 2005; 30:357-61.