Analysis of the prevalence and onset of dysphonia and dysphagia symptoms in movement disorders at an academic medical center.

Voice and swallowing impairments are common in movement disorders, but their effect on patients' quality of life is not well known. This study was conducted to determine the onset and prevalence of patient-reported dysphonia and dysphagia symptoms in Parkinson's disease (PD), dystonia, Atypical Parkinsonian Syndromes (APS), and Essential Tremor (ET). Patients referred to a movement disorders clinic in a tertiary care academic medical center completed validated voice and swallowing specific Quality of Life (QOL) questionnaires: Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) and Eating Assessment Tool-10 (EAT-10).

Auditory-Perceptual Evaluation of Deep Brain Stimulation on Voice and Speech in Patients With Dystonia.

Objective: To determine the effects of globus pallidus interna (GPi) deep brain stimulation (DBS) on speech and voice quality of patients with primary, medically refractory dystonia.

Methods: Voices of 14 patients aged ≥18 years (males = 7 and females = 7) with primary dystonia (DYT1 gene mutation dystonia = 4, cervical dystonia = 6, and generalized dystonia = 4) with bilateral GPi DBS were assessed. Five blinded raters (two fellowship-trained laryngologists and three speech/language pathologists) evaluated audio recordings of each patient pre- and post-DBS.