• Speech Sciences
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.19-33
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• 2005

Tremor is a main factor of parkinsonism. Voice tremor may be the first, later or the only symptom of a neurological disease and its frequency, amplitude, and regularity may differ among the diseases of different neural subsystems. Differential diagnosis between idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA) has been difficult. This study included three groups: (1) 6 IPD patients; (2) 6 MSA patients; and (3) 20 ageand sex-matched normal controls. The MDVP (Multidimensional Voice Program) was used to analyze the sustained /a/phonation. The results were as follows: (1) frequency perturbation parameters (jitter, sPPQ, Vf0) and FTRI of tremor parameter of two patient groups were statistically different from those of the controls (p < .01); (2) measures were higher in short-term and long-term f0 and amplitude perturbation in MSA than IPD; (3) however, any acoustic parameters between IPD and MSA were not statistically different; except for the rate of frequency tremor, 4$\sim$5 Hz in IPD, 5$\sim$11 Hz in MSA and (4) the pattern of regularity for voice tremor through histogram indicated that amplitude of IPD was irregular while both f0 and amplitude of MSA were irregular. In conclusion, F0, rate of frequency tremor, and pattern of f0 regularity may be predictors for differential diagnosis. These findings might signify that voice tremor of parkinsonism was resulted from modulation of f0.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.38-43
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• 1997

Backgroud : Now a days, most studies for professional voice user have been performed after artificial voice abuse without consideration of environmental and personal factors, and occupational specificity, therefore those studies have some problems. Objectives : To make a basic guideline for the management of untrained professional voice user, practically we ananalyzed the voice of experimental group. Materials and methods : Just after working, the sustained vowel sounds of the 15 female telephone operators (subjective group) and the 20 normal female persons (control group) were analysed, using a history paper, acoustic analyzer and videostroboscopy. Results : The most common symptom in subjective group was dysphonia. Stroboscopic findings in subjective group were as following ; posterior chink 11 cases (73%), incomplete closure 2 cases (13%), anterior chink 1 case (7%). The mean maximal phonation time in telephone operators was 12.8 seconds and in control group was 16.8 seconds. Jitter, pitch pertubation quotient (PPQ), shimmer and amplitude pertubation quotient (ASQ) were significantly increased in subjective group than control group, but there is no difference between two group in fundamental frequency and noise to harmonic ratio. Conclusion : Untrained professional voice user needs professional career guidance and counseling. And when we manage the untrained professional voice user, we should consider specific occupational, personal and environmental factors as well as laryngeal factors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.124-129
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• 1999

Background and Objectives : Classical singers are capable of masking abnormalities due to their high level of training and may present with apparent technical deficits rather than with obvious dysfunction. Therefore, some variations from expected normal laryngeal behavior may be present in trained classical singers. Consequently it is important for otolaryngologist to obtain a baseline assessment of their laryngeal function. Materials and Methods : Acoustic measurement including strobovideolaryngoscopy from 50 classically trained singers was done for this study, which was compared with the data from 20 untrained adults. Results and Conclusion : This study showed that 50-healthy asymptomatic classical singers revealed an incidence of 50% abnormal strobovideolaryngoscopic findings, but their acoustic data was within normal limit despite the abnormal laryngeal findings. Therefore the author recommends that the classical singers need objective voice analysis and their baseline data should be used for the accurate diagnosis of the cause of voice dysfunction In classical singer whose baseline laryngeal behavior may be unusual.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.201-219
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• 2003

Background: The perceptual assessment is generally performed by the voice specialist. The objective evaluation is performed in a voice laboratory. Research in voice laboratories has generated a variety of different objective tests and parameters. The perceptual evaluation is one of the most controversial topics in voice research. Review of literature reveals a wide variety of rating scales and reliability data fluctuating from study to study. Unfortunately, there is no widely accepted valid method for classifying voice disorders and assessing outcome after voice treatment. Objectives: The goals of this research were to identify important objective acoustic parameters of vocal quality, and to establish an objective and quantitative correlate of the perceived vocal quality. Materials and Methods : We evaluated the voice analyzed data from 122 dysphonic patients and 20 normal volunteers. A computerized speech lab. 4300B(CSL) was used to carry out the analysis of each voice sample. Results: Three dysphonia severity indices(DSI) were created using discriminant analysis. DSI is based on the weighted combination of the following selected set of acoustic parameters: absolute jitter(Jita in us), smoothed pitch period perturbation (sPPQ in %), amplitude perturbation quotient(APQ in %), soft phonation index(SPI), average fundamental frequency(Fo in Hz), lowest fundamental frequency(Flo in Hz), and smoothed amplitude perturbation quotient(sAPQ in %). The DSI, being the discriminating rule calculated by the logistic regression, consists of three equation based on statistically significant acoustic parameters. Three DSI were created to reflects best the degree of hoarseness as expressed by G from the GRBAS scale. The more positive this DSI is for a patient, the worse the vocal quality. The more it is negative, the better it is. The effect of sex is included implicitly in the DSI-1 and DSI-2, so that a separate DSI-1 and DSI-2 for males and females need not be used. The DSI is objective because no perceptual input is required for its calculation. Conculsion : This research demonstrates that the voice function values calculated from three different multivariate objective dysphonia severity indices are significantly associated with subjective voice assessments. These multivariate objective dysphonia severity indices may be appropriate for use in clinical trials and outcomes research on treatment effectiveness for voice disorders.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.76-82
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• 2002

In this paper, we implemented on the classifier for differential diagnosis of laryngeals disease which is normal, polyp, nodule, palsy, and each step of glottic cancer using hierarchical neural network. We conducted on classifier of various vowels as /a/, /e/, /i/, /o/, /u/ from normal group, laryngeal disease group, each step of cancer group. The experimental result on classification of each vowels as follows. A /a/ vowel shows excellent classification result to the other vowels in regard to each Input parameters. Thus we implemented the hierarchical neural network for differential diagnosis of laryngeals disease using only /a/ vowel. A implemented hierarchical neural network is composed of each other laryngeals disease apply to each other parameter in each hierarchical layer. We take the voice signals from patient who get the laryngeal disease and glottic cancer, and then use the APQ, PPQ, vAm, Jitter, Shimmer, RAP as input parameter of neural networks.