Assessment of Vocal Fold Stiffness by Means of High-Speed Videolaryngoscopy with Laryngotopography in Prediction of Early Glottic Malignancy: Preliminary Report

Abstract

One of the most important challenges in laryngological practice is the early diagnosis of laryngeal cancer. Detection of non-vibrating areas affected by neoplastic lesions of the vocal folds can be crucial in the recognition of early cancerogenous infiltration. Glottal pathologies associated with abnormal vibration patterns of the vocal folds can be detected and quantified using High-speed Videolaryngoscopy (HSV), also in subjects with severe voice disorders, and analyzed with the aid of computer image processing procedures. We present a method that enables the assessment of vocal fold pathologies with the use of HSV. The calculated laryngotopographic (LTG) maps of the vocal folds based on HSV allowed for a detailed characterization of vibration patterns and abnormalities in different regions of the vocal folds. We verified our methods with HSV recordings from 31 subjects with a normophonic voice and benign and malignant vocal fold lesions. We proposed the novel Stiffness Asymmetry Index (SAI) to differentiate between early glottis cancer (SAI = 0.65 ± 0.18) and benign vocal fold masses (SAI = 0.16 ± 0.13). Our results showed that these glottal pathologies might be noninvasively distinguished prior to histopathological examination. However, this needs to be confirmed by further research on larger groups of benign and malignant laryngeal lesions.

The sensitivity of laryngeal findings in predicting high‐grade dysplasia in patients with vocal fold leukoplakia undergoing office‐based biopsies: A retrospective analysis of 100 cases

“…Other predictive signs of malignancy include the extent of mucosal waves on laryngeal videostroboscopy and the pattern of vascularity seen using narrowband imaging 6 . A decrease in mucosal waves during phonation, for instance, denotes invasion of the deep structures of the vocal fold and is considered an ominous sign by many 7 …”

“… 6 A decrease in mucosal waves during phonation, for instance, denotes invasion of the deep structures of the vocal fold and is considered an ominous sign by many. 7 …”

“…6 A decrease in mucosal waves during phonation, for instance, denotes invasion of the deep structures of the vocal fold and is considered an ominous sign by many. 7 Numerous studies in the literature highlighted the sensitivity of the morphological features of vocal fold leukoplakia in predicting high-grade dysplasia/carcinoma in situ (CIS) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). The sensitivity was computed based on the pathological findings of the biopsy taken in the operating room under direct laryngoscopy.…”

Value of high-speed videoendoscopy as an auxiliary tool in differentiation of benign and malignant unilateral vocal lesions

“…Those devices (among others) are NBI, LVS, and HSV. Researchers leading their constant development are attempting to use HSV in the visualization of vocal fold oscillations in organic lesions (Yamauchi et al 2021 ; Kaluza et al 2022 ).…”

Automatic multiclass classification of laryngeal cancer using deep convolution neural networks

“…About 95 to 98 percent of laryngeal cancer is diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and the most common one is supraglottic SSC whose symptoms are clinically evident only in advanced stages [3,4]. Glottic SCC is found to exhibit symptoms at an early stage thus making the diagnosis easy compared to supraglottic SSC [5][6][7].…”