Aerodynamic Analysis in Quantitative Evaluation of Voice Disorders

The aim of this study is to characterize the aerodynamics measures of subjects with functional dysphonia. By comparing such technique with spectrography and videolaryngoscopy, correlation between these methods and aerodynamic measurements can be evaluated. This prospective study contained 23 dysphonic patients without organic lesions of the larynx. In addition to laryngeal endoscopy, patients were underwent to spectrographic and aerodynamic analysis of the voice. Aerodynamic evaluation demonstrated the possibility of distinguishing between three functional categories: hypofunctional, hyperfunctional and hypofunctional dysphonia with supraglottic compensation. Finally, comparing the G component of the GRBAS scale to glottic resistance, the result was a negative correlation index equal to -0918 for subjects with hypofunctional dysphonia with supraglottic contracture. In the other two groups of samples (hypofunctional dysphonia, hyperfunctional dysphonia) this correlation was not found. It was given particular emphasis on the aerodynamic evaluation because this technique allows measurement of glottic effort and monitoring during therapy. The obtained data suggest that it would be desirable to increase the use of aerodynamic parameters in the phoniatric diagnosis.