Quantitative evaluation of the voice range profile in patients with voice disorder

Abstract

In 1953, Calvet first displayed the fundamental frequency (pitch) and sound pressure level (intensity) of a voice on a two-dimensional plane and created a voice range profile. This profile has been used to evaluate clinically various vocal disorders, although such evaluations to date have been subjective without quantitative assessment. In the present study, a quantitative system was developed to evaluate the voice range profile utilizing a personal computer. The area of the voice range profile was defined as the voice volume. This volume was analyzed in 137 males and 175 females who were treated for various dysphonias at Kyushu University between 1984 and 1990. Ten normal subjects served as controls. The voice volume in cases with voice disorders significantly decreased irrespective of the disease and sex. Furthermore, cases having better improvement after treatment showed a tendency for the voice volume to increase. These findings illustrated the voice volume as a useful clinical test for evaluating voice control in cases with vocal disorders.

Treatment Outcomes for Professional Voice Users

“…Phonetograms are representative of the output of the entire phonatory mechanism 49 and have been considered as a measure of voice coordination. 50 The increased area shown after the combined treatments is considered a positive outcome of the combined modality treatment. 51 Eightynine percent of the individual participants increased phonetogram area with the combined treatment as opposed to 77% with the individual treatments.…”

Características da fonetografia em indivíduos com equilíbrio dentofacial pós-muda vocal

“…The literature has documented the use of phonetography to distinguish normal vocal voices 5,7,8 , documenting changes in voice due to fatigue, and to evaluate the change in vocal quality after voice therapy 4 , or vocal training for singing 6,9 . Specifically regarding the standardization of benchmarks, there are studies for the Thai population 10 , German 11 and Finnish…”

Feasibility of measurement of a voice range profile with a semi-occluded vocal tract

“…The VRP is an internationally accepted tool of voice assessment (Schutte and Seidner, 1983; Ikeda et al, 1999). It is often obtained as the “first look” into vocal capability of an individual in the acoustic domain (Hacki, 1999; Sihvo et al, 2000; Wuyts et al, 2003).…”