Purpose The aim of this study was to recommend protocols for instrumental assessment of voice production in the areas of laryngeal endoscopic imaging, acoustic analyses, and aerodynamic procedures,...

https://pubs.asha.org/doi/pdf/10.1044/2018_AJSLP-17-0009

Recommended Protocols for Instrumental Assessment of Voice: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Expert Panel to Develop a Protocol for Instrumental Assessment of Vocal Function

A digital technique for high-speed visualization of vibration, called videokymography, was developed and applied to the vocal folds. The system uses a modified video camera able to work in two modes : high-speed (nearly 8000 images/s) and standard (50 images/s in CCIR norm). In the high-speed mode, the camera selects one active horizontal line (transverse to the glottis) from the whole laryngeal image. The successive line images are presented in real time o a commercial TV monitor, filling each video frame from top to bottom. The system makes it possible to observe left-right asymetries, open quotient, propagation of mucosal waves, movement of the upper and, in the closing phase, the lower margins of the vocal folds, etc... The technique is suitable for further processing and quantification of recorded vibration.

Videokymography : High-speed line scanning of vocal fold vibration

Diagnosis and treatment of voice disorders

Purpose of review The current article reviews recent literature examining occupational voice use and occupational voice disorders (January 2018-July 2019). Recent findings Our understanding of the prevalence of voice disorders and work-related vocal use, vocal load and vocal ergonomics (environmental and person influences) across different occupations is continuing to build. There is encouraging evidence for the value of intervention programs for occupational voice users, particularly of late with performers, teachers and telemarketers. Education and prevention programs are emerging for other 'at risk' occupations. Summary Occupational health and workforce legislation does not adequately acknowledge and guide educational, preventive and intervention approaches to occupational voice disorders. Voice disorders are prevalent in certain occupations and there is an urgent need for research to support occupational voice health and safety risk measurement, prevention and intervention. Large population-based studies are required with a focus on the health and economic burden of occupational voice disorders.

Occupational voice is a work in progress: active risk management, habilitation and rehabilitation

In the last decade, the implementation of machine learning algorithms in the analysis of voice disorder is paramount in order to provide a non-invasive voice pathology detection by only using audio signal. In spite of that, most recent systems of voice pathology work on a limited acoustic database. In other words, the systems use one vowel, such as /a/, and ignore sentences and other vowels when analyzing the audio signal. Other key issues that should be considered in the systems are accuracy and time consumption of an algorithm. Online Sequential Extreme Learning Machine (OSELM) is one of the machine learning algorithms that can be regarded as a rapid and accurate algorithm in the classification process. Therefore, this paper presents a voice pathology detection and classification system by using OSELM algorithm as a classifier, and Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) as a featured extraction. In this work, the voice samples were taken from the Saarbrucken voice database (SVD). This system involves two parts of the database; the first part includes all voices in SVD with sentences and vowels /a/, /i/, and /u/, which are uttered in high, low, and normal pitches; and the second part utilizes voice samples of the common three types of pathologies (cyst, polyp, and paralysis) based on the vowel /a/ that is produced in normal pitch. The experimental results have shown that OSELM was able to achieve the highest accuracy up to 91.17%, 94% of precision, and 91% of recall. Furthermore, OSELM obtained 87%, 87.55%, and 97.67% for f-measure, G-mean, and specificity, respectively. The proposed system also presents a high ability to achieve detection and classification results in real-time clinical applications.

/pdf/voice-pathology-detection-and-classification-by-adopting-117ux05tvr.pdf

Voice Pathology Detection and Classification by Adopting Online Sequential Extreme Learning Machine

Z roku na rok na świecie wzrasta liczba osób zawodowo posługujących się głosem. Wraz z pojawianiem się nowych zawodów wymagających ponadprzeciętnej sprawności narządu głosu, coraz więcej grup zawodowych wymaga objęcia ich opieką i profilaktyką zawodowych zaburzeń głosu. W pracy dokonano przeglądu piśmiennictwa dotyczącego występowania zawodowych zaburzeń głosu w poszczególnych grupach zawodowych, opisano najważniejsze czynniki ryzyka i scharakteryzowano specyfikę pracy głosem w wybranych zawodach. Autorki zwracają szczególną uwagę na konieczność prowadzenia w Polsce badań na innych niż nauczyciele grupach osób zawodowo posługujących się głosem, gdyż takie badania do tej pory nie były prowadzone.

Risk factors and prevalence of voice disorders in different occupational groups – a review of literature

Introduction: Digital imaging techniques enable exploration of novel visualization modalities of the vocal folds during phonation and definition of parameters, facilitating more precise diagnosis of voice disorders.Aim: Application of computer vision algorithms for analysis of videolaryngostroboscopic (VLS) images aimed at qualitative and quantitative description of phonatory vibrations.Materials and methods: VLS examinations were conducted for 45 females, including 15 subjects with vocal nodules, 15 subjects with glottal incompetence, and 15 normophonic females. The recorded VLS images were preprocessed, the glottis area was segmented out, and the glottal cycles were identified. The glottovibrograms were built, and then the glottal area waveforms (GAW) were quantitatively described by computing the following parameters: open quotient (OQ), closing quotient (CQ), speed quotient (SQ), minimal relative glottal area (MRGA), and a new parameter termed closure difference index (CDI).Results: Profiles o...

Quantitative assessment of videolaryngostroboscopic images in patients with glottic pathologies.

This study was partially supported by the project of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (No. 18.15/2016-2017, titled “Comparison of voice-related quality of life assessment conducted by means of V-RQOL questionnaire and Voice handicap Index (VHI) in dysphonic occupational voice users”, project manager: Joanna Morawska, M.A.).

http://medpr.imp.lodz.pl/pdf-78068-20637?filename=Screening value of V-RQOL.pdf

Screening value of V-RQOL in the evaluation of occupational voice disorders.

The paper presents a case study of a transsexual patient who underwent a voice pitch elevation surgery performed in Poland for the first time. The human voice is a reflection of the working of hormones and human psyche. This fact is of particular importance in transsexualism, a disorder consisting in incongruence between the individual's biological sex and their identified gender. For many transsexual people, especially of the MTF (male to female) type, who have undergone hormonal and surgical sex change, the voice still presents a major problem, causing difficulties in everyday life. Hormonal treatment does not influence feminisation of the larynx. In the described MTF case, the patient's low androphonic voice was perceived as a male voice. In order to feminise the patient's voice a phonosurgical procedure was performed: the length of the vibrating portion of the vocal folds was shortened by over 50% of their total length by means of suturing of the anterior part of the vocal fold. As a result of the surgical treatment the pitch of voice was raised considerably, with F0 of spoken voice increased from 109 Hz to 209 Hz. The voice range also changed towards female tones, from 59-146 Hz to 148-343 Hz. Pitch elevation positively influenced the patient's subjective voice assessment: total score of the Voice Handicap Index (VHI) improved from 99 to 19 points, and the score of its emotional sub-scale: 39 and 2 points, respectively. The described case of a surgical male-to-female voice change presents one of the dilemmas faced by modern medicine. (Endokrynol Pol 2016; 67 (4): 452-455).

/pdf/gender-related-voice-problems-in-transsexuals-therapeutical-4yowyy22sv.pdf

Gender-related voice problems in transsexuals - therapeutical demands.

Funding: part of this study was supported by the project of the Polish State Committee for Scientific Research. Project No. 18.1/12, entitled
“Applicability of laryngeal manual therapy in rehabilitation of functional voice disorders.” Project manager: Ewelina Woźnicka, Ph.D.

http://medpr.imp.lodz.pl/pdf-68394-7737?filename=Laryngeal manual therapy.pdf

Joanna Morawska

Papers

Risk factors and prevalence of voice disorders in different occupational groups – a review of literature

Quantitative assessment of videolaryngostroboscopic images in patients with glottic pathologies.

Screening value of V-RQOL in the evaluation of occupational voice disorders.

Gender-related voice problems in transsexuals - therapeutical demands.

Laryngeal manual therapy palpatory evaluation scale: A preliminary study to examine its usefulness in diagnosis of occupational dysphonia.