Acoustic Parameters in Persian-Speaking Patients with Dysphonia

Abstract

Article Info Acoustic Parameters in Persian-Speaking Patients with Dysphonia Farhad Torabinenezhad1, Farzad Izadi2, Abbas Pourshahbaz*3, Mahmood Bijankhan4, Moharam Eslami5, Mohammad Rohani6, Mona Ebrahimipor7 1. Assistant Professor, Department of Speech & Language Pathology, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 2. Professor, Department of ENT, Hazrat Rasoul Medical Complex, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 3. Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Psychology, Social Welfare & Rehabilitation Sciences University, Tehran, Iran 4. Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran 5. Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Zanjan, Zanjan, Iran 6. Associate Professor, Department of Neurology, Hazrat Rasoul Medical Complex, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran 7. Assistant Professor, Department of Speech Therapy, Social Welfare & Rehabilitation Sciences University, Tehran, Iran Background & Objectives: Studying voice acoustic parameters in vowel production is a crucial component of every standard voice evaluation. Voice Analysis is non-invasive. Nowadays, computerized Voice Analysis is growing rapidly. Therefore, understanding acoustic parameters in healthy and unhealthy individuals is more significant than before. This research is a step toward boosting our knowledge about voice acoustic parameters. The main purpose of this research is to study acoustic characteristics in dysphonic and healthy Iranian individuals. Methods: The current study was descriptive-analytic. Vowel Analysis was conducted through Praat software. Voices of 50 dysphonic patients and 50 healthy participants were evaluated. The acoustic parameters included average, standard deviation, and range of fundamental frequency, jitter, shimmer, the number and degree of voice breaks, and harmonic to noise ratio. Results: In all studied acoustic characteristics, patients’ mean scores were higher than controls’ mean scores, except for harmonic to noise ratio which was higher in the healthy individuals. Although, the number of voice breaks in healthy male and female population was zero, it was 1.8 in male patients and 4.4 in female patients (P<0.05). jitter and shimmer in patients were dramatically higher (P<0.05) than their amount in healthy controls; moreover, patients’ fundamental frequency range (male: 54.6±59.0, female: 78.6±68.4) was extremely broader than individuals with normal voices (male: 9.7±4.1, female: 16.2±7.3). Conclusion: It was clarified that there are considerably significant differences in some acoustic features. These differences may be used as a foundation for diagnosis and intervention in dysphonic patients. This study illustrated that Acoustic Analysis can differentiate healthy individuals from patients. Hence, it can be used as a noninvasive, fast and accurate method.