A method of pitch-synchronous acoustic analysis of hoarseness requiring a voice sample of only four fundamental periods is presented. This method calculates a noise-to-signal (N/S) ratio, which indicates the depth of valleys between harmonic peaks in the power spectrum. The spectrum is calculated pitch synchronously from a Fourier transform of the signal, windowed through a continuously variable Hanning window spanning exactly four fundamental periods. A two-stage procedure is used to determine the exact duration of the four fundamental periods. An initial estimate is obtained using autocorrelation in the time domain. A more precise estimate is obtained in the frequency domain by minimizing the errors between the preliminary calculated power spectrum and the predicted spectrum spread of a windowed harmonic signal. Analysis of synthesized voices showed that the N/S ratio is sensitive to additive noise, jitter, and shimmer, and is insensitive to slow (8 Hz) modulation in fundamental frequency and amplitude. An analysis of pre- and postoperative voices of six patients with benign laryngeal disease showed that the N/S ratio for vowel /u/ in running speech consistently improved after surgery for all subjects, in agreement with their successful therapeutic results.

Our liposuctioned autologous fat injection histologically offered long-term improvement in patients with impaired glottal closure from vocal fold paralysis.

The constriction was eliminated immediately after surgery and the patients became capable of smooth phonation. Hoarseness was recognized, but it began to ease after 1-2 months and was corrected to B grade 1-0 of the GRBAS scale approximately 6 months after the surgery. Improvement in the condition was noted in all seven patients according to evaluations based on the mora method. All patients are currently in the B grade 0.

No abstract

No abstract