Publications by authors named "Lauren Tracy"

Objective: To identify current airway management practice patterns during free tissue transfer (FTT) reconstruction of head and neck defects.

Methods: A 27-question survey distributed to American Head and Neck Society (AHNS) members. Correlation between surgeon and patient variables with likelihood to perform tracheotomy and tracheotomy technique were evaluated.

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Objective: To analyze national trends in the prevalence of office-based laryngeal ablative procedures and compare those with traditional operative excisional procedures utilizing direct laryngoscopy.

Methodology: For years 2013-2022, the US Medicare Part B claims database was searched for Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes 31572 (flexible laryngoscopy with laser ablation of lesion), 31540 (operative direct laryngoscopy with excision of lesion), 31541 (operative direct microlaryngoscopy with excision of lesion), and 31545 (operative direct microlaryngoscopy with excision of lesion and local tissue flap reconstruction). For each CPT code, the total number of charges billed to the Medicare database in each calendar year was recorded and annual trends were analyzed.

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Objective: Although voice therapy is a highly effective treatment for voice disorders, benefits are diminished by poor adherence to appointments. Remote telehealth delivery of therapy may address this problem by improving access. This study investigates attendance at remote telehealth voice therapy and evaluates potential correlation with patient demographics and socioeconomic status.

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In-person swallow therapy is a primary and effective treatment for dysphagia. However, remote telehealth is now a widely utilized component of healthcare delivery for therapeutic interventions. This study evaluates potential factors influencing attendance at telehealth swallow therapy.

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Dysphagia negatively impacts quality of life and increases health care costs. Swallow therapy is the primary and effective treatment for dysphagia of various etiologies, and attendance is critical to success. This study seeks to identify barriers to swallow therapy attendance at a tertiary care, safety-net hospital.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand the role of implicit racial bias in auditory-perceptual evaluations of dysphonic voices by determining if a biasing effect exists for novice listeners in their auditory-perceptual ratings of Black and White speakers.

Method: Thirty speech-language pathology graduate students at Boston University listened to audio files of 20 Black speakers and 20 White speakers of General American English with voice disorders. Listeners rated the overall severity of dysphonia of each voice heard using a 100-unit visual analog scale and completed the Harvard Implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure their implicit racial bias.

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Objectives: Localized laryngotracheal amyloidosis (LA) is a rare disease that can impact phonation and respiration. Treatment options include observation, surgery, and radiation therapy (RT). Given the rare incidence of LA, evidence regarding optimal management and long-term outcomes is limited.

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Importance: Pregnancy may result in physiologic and pathologic changes in the head and neck. Otolaryngologists may need to intervene medically or surgically with pregnant patients. Careful consideration of risks to both the gravid patient and the developing fetus is vital.

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Retrotransposons are highly enriched in the animal genome. The activation of retrotransposons can rewrite host DNA information and fundamentally impact host biology. Although developmental activation of retrotransposons can offer benefits for the host, such as against virus infection, uncontrolled activation promotes disease or potentially drives ageing.

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This study aims to evaluate if race and ethnicity affect rates of tympanostomy tube (TT) placement during inpatient pediatric admissions in children with otologic conditions. A review of the 2016 Kids' Inpatient Database was conducted based on the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) codes for common otologic conditions. Among 85 827 weighted pediatric inpatient discharges with ICD-10-CM codes for common otologic conditions, 213 underwent TT placement.

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Article Synopsis
  • Nasopharyngeal stenosis (NPS) is a serious complication that can happen after radiation treatment for nasopharyngeal carcinoma, and this review discusses the latest management strategies and patient outcomes.
  • A review of 14 studies found 59 patients with NPS, with most (51) successfully treated through endoscopic excision; fewer had success with balloon dilation.
  • Primary excision of scar tissue is identified as the most effective treatment, showing lower revision rates compared to balloon dilation (62% vs. 17%).
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Objectives: Chronic laryngitis can present with numerous symptoms, including chronic cough. Patients who do not respond to standard treatment are sometimes diagnosed with chronic airway hypersensitivity (CAH). In many centers, neuromodulators are prescribed off-label despite limited evidence of efficacy.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between pitch discrimination and fundamental frequency (f) variation in running speech, with consideration of factors such as singing status and vocal hyperfunction (VH).

Method: Female speakers (18-69 years) with typical voices (26 non-singers; 27 singers) and speakers with VH (22 non-singers; 30 singers) completed a pitch discrimination task and read the Rainbow Passage. The pitch discrimination task was a two-alternative forced choice procedure, in which participants determined whether tokens were the same or different.

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Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether automated estimates of vocal creak would differentiate speakers with adductor laryngeal dystonia (AdLD) from speakers with muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) and speakers without voice disorders.

Methods: Sixteen speakers with AdLD, sixteen speakers with MTD, and sixteen speakers without voice disorders were recorded in a quiet environment reading aloud a standard paragraph. An open-source creak detector was used to calculate the percentage of creak (% creak) in each of the speaker's six recorded sentences.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate if the season of diagnosis is associated with patient, tumor, and treatment characteristics within head and neck cancer.

Materials And Methods: 1406 patients with a diagnosis of head and neck cancer (HNC) were identified from a HNC database (1996-2019). Patients were classified as receiving a diagnosis in the winter, spring, summer, or fall by calendar definition.

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Retrotransposons are one type of mobile genetic element that abundantly reside in the genomes of nearly all animals. Their uncontrolled activation is linked to sterility, cancer and other pathologies, thereby being largely considered detrimental. Here we report that, within a specific time window of development, retrotransposon activation can license the host's immune system for future antiviral responses.

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Objective: Laryngeal abscesses are rare in the modern antibiotic era. Historically, they were associated with systemic infections including typhoid fever, measles, gonorrhea, syphilis, and tuberculosis. More recent authors have described cases resulting from iatrogenic injury and immunosuppression.

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Objectives: Development of traction pharyngesophageal diverticula following anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) is a rare but morbid cause of dysphagia and the optimal surgical management is unclear.

Methods: PubMed, GoogleScholar, Embase database reviews of "traction diverticula/um + anterior cervical/ACDF." Patient demographics, presenting symptoms, surgical technique, and outcomes were compared.

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Objective: Certain sociodemographic variables are known to result in health care disparities. This study investigates potential differences in outcomes for patients with laryngotracheal stenosis (LTS) based on racial backgrounds and socioeconomic variables including insurance status and English language-Proficiency.

Methods: Patients with LTS from 2016 to 2021were identified by relevant ICD codes.

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Purpose: The goal of this study was to use speech resynthesis to investigate the effects of changes to individual acoustic features on speech-based gender perception of transmasculine voice samples following the onset of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) with exogenous testosterone. We hypothesized that mean fundamental frequency ( ) would have the largest effect on gender perception of any single acoustic feature.

Method: Mean , contour, and formant frequencies were calculated for three pairs of transmasculine speech samples before and after HRT onset.

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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is associated with severe acute respiratory illness, often requiring intensive care unit admission. Some patients require prolonged intubation and mechanical ventilation. Post-intubation laryngotracheal stenosis occurs in approximately four to 13 % of adult patients after prolonged intubation in the absence of COVID-19 infection.

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Purpose: This study examined the discriminative ability of acoustic indices of vocal hyperfunction combining smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPS) and relative fundamental frequency (RFF).

Method: Demographic, CPPS, and RFF parameters were entered into logistic regression models trained on two 1:1 case-control groups: individuals with and without nonphonotraumatic vocal hyperfunction (NPVH; = 360) and phonotraumatic vocal hyperfunction (PVH; = 240). Equations from the final models were used to predict group membership in two independent test sets ( = 100 each).

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Background: This study compares select social determinants of health (SDOH) with treatment modality selection and treatment completion in head and neck cancer (HNC) patients, to better understand disparities in health outcomes.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study of HNC (n = 1428) patients was conducted. Demographic and disease-specific variables were recorded, including treatment modality selection and completion.

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Objective: There is evidence to suggest adverse outcomes on patients' medical and surgical care when there is language discordance in patient-physician relationships. No studies have evaluated the impact of limited English proficiency (LEP) on complications after common surgical procedures in otolaryngology. Furthermore, no studies have evaluated how patients with LEP utilize remote resources to connect with otolaryngology providers to better triage such complications.

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