Vowel- and text-based cepstral analysis of chronic hoarseness.

Objectives/hypothesis: Automatic voice evaluation is usually performed on stable sections of sustained vowels, which often cannot capture hoarseness properly. The measures cepstral peak prominence (CPP) and smoothed CPP (CPPS) do not require exact determination of the cycles of fundamental frequency like established perturbation-based measures. They can also be applied to text recordings.

Automatic intelligibility assessment of pathologic speech over the telephone.

Objective assessment of intelligibility on the telephone is desirable for voice and speech assessment and rehabilitation. A total of 82 patients after partial laryngectomy read a standardized text which was synchronously recorded by a headset and via telephone. Five experienced raters assessed intelligibility perceptually on a five-point scale.

Voice handicap and health-related quality of life after treatment for small laryngeal carcinoma.

Treatment of small carcinoma of the larynx may lead to voice handicap and restricted quality of life. The relationship between the two is revealed. Sixty-five patients aged 62.

Objective voice parameters and self-perceived handicap in dysphonia.

Objective: This study focuses on the relation between objective voice quality and the self-perception of a voice handicap.

Patients And Methods: The study group consisted of 86 German-speaking patients (51 women, 35 men) suffering from benign dysphonia. The test persons completed the German version of the Voice-Related Quality of Life (V-RQOL) Questionnaire without prior information about their diagnosis and underwent voice analysis with the Dysphonia Severity Index (DSI) being the parameter of this study.

Voice function and voice-related quality of life in the elderly.

Background: Many studies have referred to the effects of age on voice and the consequences of these changes. However, only little is known about the adverse effects of voice changes on quality of life in the elderly.

Objective: This study focuses on self-perception of voice in seniors as assessed by the Voice-Related Quality of Life (V-RQOL) questionnaire, on voice quality as measured by the Dysphonia Severity Index (DSI) and on the correlation between these parameters.

Voice- and health-related quality of life in the elderly.

Objective: Restrictions of verbal communication and high prevalence of voice disorders in the elderly are suspected to influence the quality of life. For assessment, both voice-specific and unspecific methods are already established and fundamental components of clinical diagnostics, but the question of correlation between voice-related and general health-related quality of life is still open in this subpopulation.

Methods: One hundred and seven socially active persons aged 65+ years were recruited and asked to complete Voice-Related Quality of Life (V-RQOL) and Short Form (SF)-36 questionnaires.

Automatic evaluation of tracheoesophageal substitute voice: sustained vowel versus standard text.

Objective: The Hoarseness Diagram, a program for voice quality analysis used in German-speaking countries, was compared with an automatic speech recognition system with a module for prosodic analysis. The latter computed prosodic features on the basis of a text recording. We examined whether voice analysis of sustained vowels and text analysis correlate in tracheoesophageal speakers.

Application of automatic speech recognition to quantitative assessment of tracheoesophageal speech with different signal quality.

Objective: Tracheoesophageal voice is state-of-the-art in voice rehabilitation after laryngectomy. Intelligibility on a telephone is an important evaluation criterion as it is a crucial part of social life. An objective measure of intelligibility when talking on a telephone is desirable in the field of postlaryngectomy speech therapy and its evaluation.

[Voice-related quality of life: structure, validity and factors of the German questionnaire].

In this study, structure and validity of the German version of the Voice-Related Quality of Life (V-RQOL) questionnaire and its correlation to age, gender, and type of dysphonia (organic vs. functional) were assessed. Correlations of the V-RQOL result on the one hand and emotional and physical complaints on the other hand were investigated.

Smoking, carcinophobia and Voice Handicap Index.

Objective: This study focuses on the relation of smoking, carcinophobia and voice handicap in dysphonic patients.

Patients And Methods: Fifty-four German-speaking outpatient voice clinic attendees suffering from dysphonia of benign origin took part in this study. All patients completed the German version of the Voice Handicap Index (VHI) and were asked about their fear of suffering from laryngeal cancer without prior information about their diagnosis.

[Evaluation of tactile-kinesthetic perception in preschoolers: comparison of methods].

Tactile-kinesthetic perception (TKP) is the processing, arrangement, evaluation, and integration of sensations, which are transmitted via both surface and depth sensibility. In the phoniatric field TKP is of special importance for speech development. In this study, two German diagnostic test procedures for the assessment of TKP, i.

Cortical auditory evoked potentials to acoustic changes in speech stimuli in children.

Objective: To compare the maturation of speech-evoked N170 components of cortical auditory evoked potentials with that of tone-evoked N1 components.

Patients And Methods: Cortical auditory evoked potentials to speech and tone stimuli were derived in 42 children from age 4 to 14 years. The N170 was derived from the difference curve of responses to monosyllabic words with initial consonant-to-vowel transitions and their intensity-equivalent noise signals.

Subjective burden in mothers of speech-impaired children.

Objective: Evaluation of perceived subjective burden in mothers of speech-impaired children against the presence or absence of an emotional disorder.

Methods: 89 mothers (age 33.3 +/- 5.

Automatic evaluation of prosodic features of tracheoesophageal substitute voice.

In comparison with laryngeal voice, substitute voice after laryngectomy is characterized by restricted aero-acoustic properties. Until now, an objective means of prosodic differences between substitute and normal voices does not exist. In a pilot study, we applied an automatic prosody analysis module to 18 speech samples of laryngectomees (age: 64.

Clinically evaluated procedure for the reconstruction of vocal fold vibrations from endoscopic digital high-speed videos.

Investigation of voice disorders requires the examination of vocal fold vibrations. State of the art is the recording of endoscopic high-speed movies which capture vocal fold vibrations in real-time. It enables investigating the interrelation between disturbances of vocal fold vibrations and voice disorders.

[Somatic complaints in mothers of children with developmental language disorders].

Background: In preliminary studies of mothers of children with developmental language disorders it was found that the mothers' quality of life was diminished and that they suffered from increased emotional disorders. Studies have shown that women with emotional problems also experience increased somatic afflictions. This phenomenon has not yet been confirmed in the context of mothers of children with developmental language disorders.

Evaluation of speech intelligibility for children with cleft lip and palate by means of automatic speech recognition.

Objective: Cleft lip and palate (CLP) may cause functional limitations even after adequate surgical and non-surgical treatment, speech disorders being one of them. Interindividually, they vary a lot, showing typical articulation specifics such as nasal emission and shift of articulation and therefore a diminished intelligibility. Until now, an objective means to determine and quantify the intelligibility does not exist.

Influence of leisure-time noise on outer hair cell activity in medical students.

Objective: Noise exceeding a certain level can damage outer hair cells and thus cause hearing loss. In the past, noise-induced hearing loss was mainly caused by occupational noise. Leisure-time noise may be a promoting factor, particularly in young adults.

Quantitative detection of substitute voice generator during phonation in patients undergoing laryngectomy.

Objective: To evaluate the vibration pattern of the substitute voice generator of patients who have undergone laryngectomy. For automatic quantification of the oscillations of the pharyngoesophageal (PE) segments, image processing of digital high-speed video sequences is applied.

Design: Physiologic analysis.

Voice-related quality of life in organic and functional voice disorders.

The voice-related quality of life (V-RQOL) questionnaire was proposed as a disease specific measure of patients' subjective burden elicited by a voice disorder. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of gender and aetiology (benign organic versus functional) on V-RQOL results. Fifty-two German-speaking patients completed the questionnaire without prior information about their individual diagnosis.

Quality of life in mothers of speech impaired children.

Today, health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important outcome parameter in medicine. As a mother's well-being is important for the development of her child it is assumed that her HRQOL influences her child. In children with developmental disorders mothers may experience a reduction of their HRQOL.

Intelligibility of laryngectomees' substitute speech: automatic speech recognition and subjective rating.

Substitute speech after laryngectomy is characterized by restricted aero-acoustic properties in comparison with laryngeal speech and has therefore lower intelligibility. Until now, an objective means to determine and quantify the intelligibility has not existed, although the intelligibility can serve as a global outcome parameter of voice restoration after laryngectomy. An automatic speech recognition system was applied on recordings of a standard text read by 18 German male laryngectomees with tracheoesophageal substitute speech.

Exclusion of TCOF1 mutations in a case of bilateral Goldenhar syndrome and one familial case of microtia with meatal atresia.

A number of different disorders involving first and second branchial arch anomalies have been described as distinct entities, including Treacher-Collins-Franceschetti syndrome, Goldenhar syndrome, Nager syndrome and Miller syndrome. The significant phenotypic overlap between these disorders raises the issue of a common developmental origin. After the identification of mutations in TCOF1 as a general cause of the Treacher-Collins-Franceschetti syndrome, TCOF1 mutations were excluded in patients with unilateral signs of the Goldenhar syndrome spectrum.

Quality of life in dysphonic patients.

Voice disorders can affect social life. Dysphonic patients report symptoms of psychological distress as a direct consequence of their dysphonia. It is assumed that their health-related quality of life (HRQL) is reduced.

Anxiety, depression, and quality of life in mothers of children with cleft lip/palate.

Multidisciplinary care for patients with cleft lip and palate (CLP) includes the surgical correction of the facial disfigurement and the rehabilitation of functional deficits to optimize the communicational competence of the affected patient. Although the well-being of the mother of a CLP child is an important protective factor for the child, up to now literature has paid only little attention to this topic. In this study, 50 mothers of CLP children aged 1-10 years were examined using the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) to screen for quality of life, anxiety and depression.