The vocal function of 126 patients with sulcus vocalis was evaluated with the use of a test battery of multidimensional evaluation items. Of the 126 patients, 31 had a unilateral sulcus and 95, bilateral lesions. The results were as follows. 1) The majority of the patients had a mild degree of hoarseness with a breathy quality. 2) An incomplete glottic closure, a small vibratory amplitude, and a small mucosal wave were frequently observed in the stroboscopic examination. 3) The maximum phonation time, fundamental frequency range, and sound pressure level range of phonation were decreased, whereas the airflow during phonation was increased. 4) The pitch perturbation quotient, amplitude perturbation quotient, and normalized noise energy were increased. 5) Abnormal test results were more frequent and more marked for bilateral lesions than for unilateral lesions.

The findings of this study suggest that there are two mechanisms of PAF in patients with WPW syndrome: one mechanism is reversible and AP-dependent atrial vulnerability, and the other is intrinsic and AP-independent atrial vulnerability.

Postoperative swallowing problems were investigated in 20 patients who had undergone various degrees of surgical resection for oral cancer. The swallowing problems were evaluated on the basis of type of food, degree of aspiration, and duration of postoperative nasogastric tube feeding. Two patients with tongue cancer who had had hemiglossectomy without reconstruction ate normal food without aspiration within a week after operation. Eight patients who had undergone two- to three-quarter glossectomy for tongue cancer ate gruel with no or occasional liquid aspiration. Among 4 patients who had had near-total or total glossectomy for tongue cancer, 3 ate thin gruel or liquid with occasional aspiration. The other could not eat orally because of consistent severe aspiration. One patient with mouth floor cancer underwent resection of the mouth floor in combination with hemiglossectomy and she ate gruel without aspiration. Among 5 patients with mouth floor cancer who had had surgical removal accompanied by near-total or total glossectomy, 3 ate gruel with no or occasional liquid aspiration, 1 ate thin gruel with no aspiration, and the other could not eat orally. A diagnosis of T4 lesions, extensive removal of the tongue base, removal of the geniohyoid and mylohyoid muscles, and removal of the lateral pharyngeal wall were significantly related to poor swallowing function.

Tape-recorded voices of 30 patients were acoustically analysed: 10 had glottic Tla carcinoma, 10 unilateral vocal fold polyp and 10 unilateral recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis. The carcinoma cases were treated with laser surgery with/without radiotherapy, the polyp cases with endolaryngeal microsurgery and the paralysis cases with intrafold silicone injection. The acoustic analysis was conducted before and after the treatment for each patient. Three acoustic parameters, viz. pitch perturbation quotient (PPQ), amplitude perturbation quotient (APQ) and normalized noise energy (NNE), were employed. The results were as follows: (1) PPQ and APQ were greater in paralysis cases than in carcinoma and polyp cases; (2) none of the parameters was useful in differentiating the three disease groups investigated; (3) all three parameters proved to be useful in monitoring the effects of treatments; (4) all three parameters were positively correlated to the grade of hoarseness, rough and breathy quality of hoarseness, mean airflow rate and regularity of vocal fold vibration viewed under stroboscopy; (5) PPQ, APQ and NNE were positively related to each other.

No abstract