• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.9-14
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• 2021

Spasmodic dysphonia, essential tremor, and vocal tremor related with Parkinson's disease are different disorders showing fairly similar symptoms such as difficulty in the speech onset, and tremble in the voice. However, the cause and the resulting treatment of these diseases are different. Spasmodic dysphonia is a vocal disorder characterized by spasms of the laryngeal muscles during a speech, invoking broken, tense, forced, and strangled voice patterns. Such difficult-to-treat dysphonia disease is classified as central-origin-focal dystonia, of a yet unknown etiology. Its symptoms arise because of intermittent and involuntary muscle contractions during speech. Essential tremor, on the other hand, is characterized by a rhythmic laryngeal movement, resulting in alterations of rhythmic pitch and loudness during speech or even at rest. Severe cases of tremor may cause speech breaks like those of adductor spasmodic dysphonia. In the case of hyper-functional tension of vocal folds and accompanying tremors, it is necessary to distinguish these disorders from muscular dysfunction. A diversified assessment through the performance of specific speech tasks and a thorough understanding for the identification of the disorder is necessary for accurate diagnosis and effective treatment of patients with vocal tremors.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.117-121
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• 2010

The This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the voice therapy we operated to the patients with age-related dysphonia. Thirty four participants who were diagnosed as age-related dysphonia in laryngoscopic finding from January, 2009 to December, 2009 completed the study. The participants were aged from 60 to 82 years old with a mean age of 70.6. All participants had received the abdominal breath technique, SKHPIP with laughter, and basic vocal training with description of their problem, the length of which ranged from four sessions to twelve sessions. We executed the videostroboscopy to compare the aspect of voicing change and the perceptual assessment, voice range profile, acoustic and aerodynamic measures to identify change of voice. Participants had glottal gap due to incomplete glottic closure during voicing on the pretest. After they took the voice therapy, the glottic gap became narrow and rough and breathy voice was reduced. There were significant difference in acoustic and aerodynamic measures. Jitter, Shimmer, MFR were reduced and MPT, Psub were increased(p<.05). Participants' pitch range and intensity range were increased on the posttest performance after taking voice therapy. Especially, most of them were showed that pitch range was increased significantly in high frequency area. The results of this investigation indicate that the voice therapy using abdominal breath, SKHPIP, and exercise together is effective for the patients who have age-related dysphonia to improve their voice quality. We recommend to apply this technique to functional voice disorders who are showed glottal gap.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.145-150
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• 2002

Background and Objectives : Patients with so-called 'functional voice disorders' who have structurally normal larynges and demonstrate muscle misuse in the larynx, and those with several interacting causes including habitual muscle tension, are probably better defined as having a 'muscle misuse voice disorder'. The purpose of this study was to analyze the voice and effectiveness of voice therapy in patients with functional voice disorders and to provide a guide for the treatment of functional voice disorder. Materials and Method : The records of 35 patients, presenting with functional voice disorder and receiving voice therapy during October, 2001 to September, 2002, were reviewed. Prior to voice therapy, the stroboscopic examination of their larynx, aerodynamic and acoustic analysis was done. The results of voice therapy were compared according to the patient's subjective, perceptual evaluation of voice, and maximal phonation time. Results : Patient's subjective, perceptual evaluation, and maximal phonation time showed superior results after voice therapy. Conclusion : The result of this study indicates that voice therapy is an effective treatment method of patients with functional voice disorder, especially muscular tension dysphonia.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.63-72
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• 2014

The current study assessed the utility of acoustic analyses the most commonly used in routine clinical voice assessment including perturbation, nonlinear dynamic analysis, and Spectral/Cepstrum analysis based on signal typing of dysphonic voices and investigated their applicability of clinical acoustic analysis methods. A total of 70 dysphonic voice samples were classified with signal typing using narrowband spectrogram. Traditional parameters of %jitter, %shimmer, and signal-to-noise ratio were calculated for the signals using TF32 and correlation dimension(D2) of nonlinear dynamic parameter and spectral/cepstral measures including mean CPP, CPP_sd, CPPf0, CPPf0_sd, L/H ratio, and L/H ratio_sd were also calculated with ADSV(Analysis of Dysphonia in Speech and VoiceTM). Auditory perceptual analysis was performed by two blinded speech-language pathologists with GRBAS. The results showed that nearly periodic Type 1 signals were all functional dysphonia and Type 4 signals were comprised of neurogenic and organic voice disorders. Only Type 1 voice signals were reliable for perturbation analysis in this study. Significant signal typing-related differences were found in all acoustic and auditory-perceptual measures. SNR, CPP, L/H ratio values for Type 4 were significantly lower than those of other voice signals and significant higher %jitter, %shimmer were observed in Type 4 voice signals(p<.001). Additionally, with increase of signal type, D2 values significantly increased and more complex and nonlinear patterns were represented. Nevertheless, voice signals with highly noise component associated with breathiness were not able to obtain D2. In particular, CPP, was highly sensitive with voice quality 'G', 'R', 'B' than any other acoustic measures. Thus, Spectral and cepstral analyses may be applied for more severe dysphonic voices such as Type 4 signals and CPP can be more accurate and predictive acoustic marker in measuring voice quality and severity in dysphonia.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.199-203
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• 1997

In the treatment of spasmodic dysphonia, local injection of botulinum toxin A has been reported to be successful. The treatment of adductor type spasmodic dysphonia with botulinum toxin type A injection using a flexible nasopharyngoscope was conducted in 29 patients and using a telearyngoscope in 31 patients. These patients were given toxins in the vocal fold(s), unilaterally or bilaterally, under flexible nasopharyngoscopic guidance with sclerosing needle or telelaryngoscopic guidance with 23 gauge scalp needle attached by laryngeal forceps. Before the above procedure, laryngeal anesthesia was done with 2% pontocain instillation. Among the 60 patients, 59 patients were given the toxin successfully. Telephone interview were made at 2weeks and then at 4 weeks post injection. Among 29 patients using a flexible nasopharyngoscope, 75.8% and among 31 patients using a telelaryngoscope, 90.0% reported that the patients' symptom was improved. The functional status of the patient's disorder was classified into four grades. The mean pre-injection grade fir the patients using flexible nasopharyngoscope and telelaryngoscope was 1.6 and 2.1 respectively. And it was lowered to 0.7 and 1.1 respectively after the injection. The result was similar(p<0.05). As a self assessment method, the patients were asked to rate their voice on a scale of 100. In this study, the mean pre-injection score was 44 and 40 respectively. And it was improved to 77.7 and 69.8 respectively after the injection. The result was similar(p<0.05). In conclusion, botulinum toxin injection using a flexible nasopharyngoscope is also an effective method for the treatment of adductor type spasmodic dysphonia as using a telelaryngoscope.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.204-209
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• 1997

In the treatment of spasmodic dysphonia, laryngeal injection of botulinum toxin has been reported to be successful. The treatment of adductor type spasmodic dysphonia with botulinum toxin type A injection using EMG was conducted in 24 patients and it's effect was compared with results from flexible nasopharyngoscopy guided injection(29 patients) and telelaryngoscopy guided injection(31 patients). Sixty two point five percent(62.5%) of patients using EMG and 75.8% of patients using flexible nasopharyngoscope and 90.0% of patients using telelaryngoscope reported that the patient's symptom was improved. The functional status of the patient's disorder was classified into low grades. The mean pre-injection grade for patients using EMG, flexible nasopharyngoscope and telelaryngoscope was 1.7, 1.6 and 2.1 respectively. And it was lowered to 1.0, 0.7 and 1.1 respectively after the injection. Results were similar(p＜0.05). As a self assessment method, patients were asked to rate their voice on a scale of 100. In this study, the mean pre-injection score was 66.3, 44.0 and 40.0 respectively. And it was improved to 74.8, 77.7 and 69.8 respectively after the injection. Among 23 patients who undergone above 3method, 17 patients(73.9%) told that EMG-guided botulinum injection was preferable method in its convenience and effectiveness. In conclusion, EMG guided botulinum toxin injection is an another effective method for the treatment of adductor type spasmodic dysphonia similar to telelaryngoscopy-guided injection and flexible nasopharyngoscopy guided injection.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.146-151
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• 2005

Objectives: Prospective study of quality of life in patients underwent microlaryngeal surgery for dysphonia was performed. Materials and Methods : 51 patients with dysphonia took part in the study, and patients with malignancies or functional voice disorder were excluded. Patients were asked to complete the SF-36 questionnaire before surgery and within 6-12 months after surgery. Preoperative and postoperative SF-36 scores were compared with data on 46 age-matched healthy controls. Results The most of SF-36 subscale scores showed significantly improvement after surgery, except of PF (physical functioning) and MH (mental health). Preoperative scores had significantly poorer than the normal controls on 6 subscales, but there is no statistically significant differences between postoperative scores and normal controls on 5 subscales. Conclusion In the study, patients with organic voice disorder show improvement in quality of life after microlaryngeal surgery.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.27-31
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• 1996

The voice of aged persons is known generally to be somewhat different from that of other adults, suggesting that laryngeal change occurs with advancing age. However, because knowledge of the voice characteristics of aged persons is limited, it is difficult to judge whether their voices arc normal. Chart review and laryngoscopic examination from ninety-one patients with hoarseness over the age of 60(1st group) and one hundred sixteen patients with hoarseness below the age of 50(2nd group) were done to define aging related voice disorders. The following results were obtained. 1) Associated diseases related to laryngeal disease were hypertension(12%), pulmonary disease(4.4%), thyroid disease(1.1%) in 1st group and hypertension(9.5%), thyroid disease(1.7%) in 2nd group. 2) The underlying diseases causing hoarseness in order of frequency were benign vocal fold lesion(37.7%), inflammatory disease(36.8%), functional dysphonia(17%) in 1st group and benign vocal fold lesion(43.6%), functional dysphonia(26.3%), inflammatory disease(16.5%) in 2nd group. 3) In stroboscopic findings, atrophy and sulcus of vocal cords are more prevalent in males than in females and edema of vocal cords is more common in females. Generally the voice characteristics of aged persons depend on the mass of the vocal folds which may be decreased through atrophy or be increased by edema. However, other factors such as systemic diseases, drug side effects and compensatory mechanism to presbylaryngis must be taken into account in diagnosing and treating voice disorders in aged persons.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.33-37
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• 1997

Incomplete glottic closure of vocal cord atrophy is the common cause of dysphonia. Patients with vocal cord atrophy have complaints such as dysphonia, vocal fatigue, abnormal sensation in the throat, laryngeal pain, cough or sputum like functional voice disorders. Many investigators could not confirm the pathologic laryngeal structure because of their minute pathology. But recent advancements of laryngeal examinations made the many clinicians to detect minimal laryngeal pathology and to have mind the treatment for the vocal cord atrophy. But the results were less effective than their thoughts, the reasons of ineffectiveness were not known well. Authors have found the Hyperfunctional movement of the supraglottis during phonation before and after thyroplasty type I for vocal cord atrophy. Then we have applied the combined modality treatment with thyroplaty type I and voice therapy for relieve of hypefunctional movement of the supraglottis. These options have had more imporved results.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.137-142
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• 2011

Background and Objectives : The aim of this study is to introduce Korea version of pediatric VHI and to compare pVHI-K scores between children with dysphonia and children without voice problems before pVHI-K is developed as a preliminary study. Additionally, the relationship between pVHI and acoustic measures were investigated. Materials and Methods : pVHI-K scores in normal group were obtained from 15 parents who have children with no present or past history of a voice disorder, hearing loss, or related disability that can affect the their voice or speech. Dysphonia group consisted of 15 parents who have children with bilateral vocal fold nodule's at Department of Otolaryngology, the Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH). pVHI-K and acoustic parameters were measured in two group. Results : The mean pVHI scores (total, functional, physical, emotional) in normal group were 2.33 (T), 0.80 (F) 1.33 (P) and 0.27 (E), respectively whereas those of pVHI in children group with dysphonia were 23.13 (T), 11.07 (F), 5.73 (P) and 6.13 (E), respectively and significant differences were revealed in total pVHI score as well as in all of the sub-pVHI scores. Moreover, significant correlation between pVHI-K parameters (T, F, P) and acoustic measures [Shimmer(%)] were shown in children in dysphonia group. Conclusion : Reported by parents can be useful as a supplementary clinical tool for diagnosing and measuring treatment effectiveness in young children with dysphonia.