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. 2017 Aug 16;60(8):2159-2169.
doi: 10.1044/2017_JSLHR-S-16-0337.

Glottal Aerodynamic Measures in Women With Phonotraumatic and Nonphonotraumatic Vocal Hyperfunction

Víctor M Espinoza  1   2 , Matías Zañartu  1 , Jarrad H Van Stan  3   4   5 , Daryush D Mehta  3   4   5 , Robert E Hillman  3   4   5
Affiliations

Glottal Aerodynamic Measures in Women With Phonotraumatic and Nonphonotraumatic Vocal Hyperfunction

Víctor M Espinoza et al. J Speech Lang Hear Res. .

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the validity of preliminary reports showing that glottal aerodynamic measures can identify pathophysiological phonatory mechanisms for phonotraumatic and nonphonotraumatic vocal hyperfunction, which are each distinctly different from normal vocal function.

Method: Glottal aerodynamic measures (estimates of subglottal air pressure, peak-to-peak airflow, maximum flow declination rate, and open quotient) were obtained noninvasively using a pneumotachograph mask with an intraoral pressure catheter in 16 women with organic vocal fold lesions, 16 women with muscle tension dysphonia, and 2 associated matched control groups with normal voices. Subjects produced /pae/ syllable strings from which glottal airflow was estimated using inverse filtering during /ae/ vowels, and subglottal pressure was estimated during /p/ closures. All measures were normalized for sound pressure level (SPL) and statistically tested for differences between patient and control groups.

Results: All SPL-normalized measures were significantly lower in the phonotraumatic group as compared with measures in its control group. For the nonphonotraumatic group, only SPL-normalized subglottal pressure and open quotient were significantly lower than measures in its control group.

Conclusions: Results of this study confirm previous hypotheses and preliminary results indicating that SPL-normalized estimates of glottal aerodynamic measures can be used to describe the different pathophysiological phonatory mechanisms associated with phonotraumatic and nonphonotraumatic vocal hyperfunction.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Definition of low-bandwidth glottal airflow waveform measures. (A) Sound intensity (smoothed root-mean-square of the radiated acoustic pressure). Black arrows (↓) indicate midvowel segments (red line) during which glottal aerodynamic measures were computed. (B) Intraoral pressure for five /pae/ syllables showing peak values as red asterisks and interpolation lines indicating estimated subglottal pressure halfway between peaks (black Xs).
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Graphical user interface to aid the initial automatic IF algorithm. (A) Original oral airflow waveform without its DC component. (B) Estimated glottal airflow waveform after IF superimposed on oral airflow. (C) Power spectral density of the estimated glottal airflow waveform (PSD; solid blue), linear prediction coding spectrum (LPC; dashed black), and single notch filter frequency response (SNF; solid red). (D) Time-derivative of the estimated glottal airflow waveform superimposed on time-derivative of oral airflow waveform. Slider controls dynamically change the center frequency (F1) and bandwidth (BW1) of the inverse filter. Sound player buttons (play and stop controls) provide audio feedback to user. The Ginput (Graphical input) button is used to select a segment to perform the IF process. LP = low-pass.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Definition of high-bandwidth glottal airflow waveform measures. (A) Estimated glottal airflow waveform, where peak-to-peak airflow (ACFL) is defined as the peak-to-peak waveform amplitude and open quotient = (t1 + t2) / T0, where t1 is the opening phase duration, t2 is the closing phase duration, and T0 is the time interval between two consecutive peaks of the (B) time-derivative of the estimated glottal airflow waveform. Maximum flow declination rate (MFDR) is defined as the maximum negative peak in the derivative waveform.
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References

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