Asymmetry of Occupational Noise Induced Hearing Loss: An Electrophysiological Approach.

 The question as to whether occupational noise exposure causes symmetrical or asymmetrical hearing loss is still controversial and incompletely understood.  Two electrophysiological methods (cortical evoked response audiometry: CERA and auditory steady state responses: ASSR) were used to address this issue.  156 subjects with a well-documented history of noise exposure, a wide range of noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) and without middle ear pathology underwent both a CERA and an ASSR examination in the context of an exhaustive medicolegal expert assessment intended for possible compensation.

Machine Learning Assessment of Spasmodic Dysphonia Based on Acoustical and Perceptual Parameters.

Adductor spasmodic dysphonia is a type of adult-onset focal dystonia characterized by involuntary spasms of laryngeal muscles. This paper applied machine learning techniques for the severity assessment of spasmodic dysphonia. To this aim, 7 perceptual indices and 48 acoustical parameters were estimated from the Italian word /a'jwɔle/ emitted by 28 female patients, manually segmented from a standardized sentence and used as features in two classification experiments.

Vocal Fold Collision Speed in vivo: The Effect of Loudness.

Mechanical impact stress on the vocal fold surface, particularly when excessive, has been postulated to cause the so-called phonotraumatic tissue lesions, such as nodules and polyps. The collision stress between the vocal folds depends on the vocal fold velocity at the time of impact. Hence this vocal fold collision speed is a relevant parameter when considering biomechanical economy of phonation, especially in voice professionals needing a louder voice than normal.

The Atopy Index Inventory: A Brief and Simple Tool to Identify Atopic Patients.

Introduction: Atopy and ear, nose and throat (ENT) diseases are frequently associated; however, no clinical tool has been proposed so far to discriminate which patients could be atopic and therefore deserving of a further immunoallergological evaluation.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess and validate a set of dichotomous responses suitable for predicting the presence of atopy in adult patients.

Methods: An 11-item questionnaire, i.

Intraglottal Aerodynamics at Vocal Fold Vibration Onset.

The most frequently observed type of voice onset in spontaneous speech in normal subjects is the soft onset, and it may be considered as the "physiological" onset. It starts from an immobile narrow glottal slit crossed by a continuous airflow, and then a few oscillations (even a single one in some cases) precede the first glottal closure. It is a transient event, during which the acting forces, lung pressure, intraglottal pressure, myoelastic tension of the vocal fold (VF) oscillator and inertance of the supraglottal vocal tract, interact to progressively reach the steady state of a sustained oscillation.

In Vivo Quantification of the Intraglottal Pressure: Modal Phonation and Voice Onset.

Intraglottal pressure is the driving force of vocal fold vibration. Its time course during the open phase of the vibratory cycle is essential in the mechanics of phonation, but measuring it directly is difficult and may hinder spontaneous voicing. However, it can be computed from the in vivo measured transglottal flow and glottal area (hence the air particle velocity) on the basis of the Bernoulli energy law and the interaction with the inertance of the vocal tract.

Speech Therapy as Treatment for Supragastric Belching.

The purpose of this study was to describe a newly developed speech therapy program as an innovating therapeutic approach and to assess the results of this intervention in patients with supragastric belching. This is a retrospective analysis of prospectively gathered data from 73 patients with supragastric belching who were treated with speech therapy between 2007 and 2017. Of these, 48 were included for evaluation of therapy.

Dynamics of the Driving Force During the Normal Vocal Fold Vibration Cycle.

Intraglottal pressure is the driving force of vocal fold vibration. Theoretically, simultaneous quantification of glottal area and transglottal airflow allows the calculation of the intraglottal pressure waveform during a single vibration cycle. In this study, we show that, by combining photoglottography (transglottal light transmission) and airflow (Rothenberg mask) measurements during sustained vocal emissions in vivo, the intraglottal pressure wave can be approximated in a way similar to what has been done in models.

Maximal Ambient Noise Levels and Type of Voice Material Required for Valid Use of Smartphones in Clinical Voice Research.

Purpose: Smartphone technology provides new opportunities for recording standardized voice samples of patients and transmitting the audio files to the voice laboratory. This drastically improves the achievement of baseline designs, used in research on efficiency of voice treatments. However, the basic requirement is the suitability of smartphones for recording and digitizing pathologic voices (mainly characterized by period perturbations and noise) without significant distortion.

Multidimensional Assessment of the Effectiveness of Group Voice Therapy.

Objective: Group voice therapy has been successfully used in patients with dysphonia, but there is little objectively documented evidence of its effects on voice quality and the self-perception of voice fatigue. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of group therapy in patients with functional dysphonia and minor anatomic vocal fold pathologies linked by appearance and history to voice use in an objective and multidimensional manner.

Study Design: This is a prospective longitudinal study.

A retrospective evaluation of the etiology of unilateral vocal fold paralysis over the last 25 years.

Previous studies have shown that the etiology of laryngeal paralysis has changed over the last decades, with an increase in the incidence of cases attributable to thyroid surgery. The aim of this study was to evaluate longitudinal changes in the etiology of unilateral vocal fold paralysis (UVFP) in a single institution over the last 25 years. This retrospective study analyzed the etiology of UVFP between 1990 and 2015 by comparing a cohort of patients treated in 1990-1992 with a cohort treated in 2013-2015.

Physiology and Acoustics of Inspiratory Phonation.

Introduction: Inspiratory phonation (IP) means phonating with inspiratory airflow. Some vocalists remarkably master this technique, to such an extent that it offers new dramatic, aesthetic, and functional possibilities in singing specific contemporary music. The present study aims to a better understanding of the physiological backgrounds of IP.

Automatic Assessment of Acoustic Parameters of the Singing Voice: Application to Professional Western Operatic and Jazz Singers.

Introduction: The obvious perceptual differences between various singing styles like Western operatic and jazz rely on specific dissimilarities in vocal technique. The present study focuses on differences in vibrato acoustics and in singer's formant as analyzed by a novel software tool, named BioVoice, based on robust high-resolution and adaptive techniques that have proven its validity on synthetic voice signals.

Material And Methods: A total of 48 professional singers were investigated (29 females; 19 males; 29 Western operatic; and 19 jazz).

Voice dosimetry and monitoring, with emphasis on professional voice diseases: Critical review and framework for future research.

Professional voice has become an important issue in the field of occupational health. Similarly, voice diseases related to occupations gain interest in insurance medicine, particularly within the frame of specific insurance systems for occupational diseases. Technological developments have made possible dosimetry of voice loading in the work-place, as well as long-term monitoring of relevant voice parameters during professional activities.

Multidimensional assessment of strongly irregular voices such as in substitution voicing and spasmodic dysphonia: a compilation of own research.

This article is a compilation of own research performed during the European COoperation in Science and Technology (COST) action 2103: 'Advance Voice Function Assessment', an initiative of voice and speech processing teams consisting of physicists, engineers, and clinicians. This manuscript concerns analyzing largely irregular voicing types, namely substitution voicing (SV) and adductor spasmodic dysphonia (AdSD). A specific perceptual rating scale (IINFVo) was developed, and the Auditory Model Based Pitch Extractor (AMPEX), a piece of software that automatically analyses running speech and generates pitch values in background noise, was applied.

Automated tracking of quantitative parameters from single line scanning of vocal folds: a case study of the 'messa di voce' exercise.

This article presents a novel application of the 'single line scanning' of the vocal fold vibrations (kymography) in singing pedagogy, particularly in a specific technical voice exercise: the 'messa di voce'. It aims at giving the singer relevant and valid short-term feedback. A user-friendly automatic analysis program makes possible a precise, immediate quantification of the essential physiological parameters characterizing the changes in glottal impedance, concomitant with the progressive increase and decrease of the lung pressure.

Ambulatory phonation monitoring in a sample of 92 call center operators.

Objectives: The voice is a primary work tool for call center operators, but the main risk factors for voice disorders in this category have not yet been clarified. This study aimed to analyze the vocal behavior in call center operators and search for correlations between the daily voice dose and the self-perceived voice-related handicap.

Study Design: Prospective.

Exploring the sensitivity of speech-in-noise tests for noise-induced hearing loss.

Objective: Recently, the digit triplet test was shown to be a sensitive speech-in-noise test for early high-frequency hearing loss in noise-exposed workers. This study investigates if a further improvement is achieved when using a closed set of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) speech items with the same vowel, and/or a low-pass (LP) filtered version of the standard speech-shaped noise.

Design: Speech reception thresholds in noise were gathered for the digit triplet, CVC, and CVC_LP test and compared to the high-frequency pure-tone average (PTA).

Therapeutic consequences from changing voice ideals (clear to harsh, pleasant to jarring): summarizing report on a round-table discussion at the 5th World Voice Congress, Luxor, Egypt, 27-31 October 2012.

Starting out with an attempt to define an 'ideal voice', the discussion moved on to the hazards of pop singing, followed by the topics of harsh voices (from the desired effects in modern singing expression to devastating clinical cases), phoniatric targets (aesthetics and fitness), and, finally, the phoniatricians' attitudes comprising acceptance, neglect, and rejection. Therapy should aim at a resilient and effective voice regardless of the mere sound, unless the perfection of the vocal sound is the ultimate goal. In addition, the panellists agreed that voice specialists and all friends of healthy and efficient voices are obliged permanently to engage in voice care.

Efficient hearing screening in noise-exposed listeners using the digit triplet test.

Objectives: Hearing screening in occupational medicine is generally based on pure-tone threshold audiometry. However, reliable and valid thresholds can only be obtained in a sound-proof room, using a high-quality, well-calibrated audiometer, and by a well-trained administrator. Thresholds also need to be determined for several audiometric frequencies.

Long-term effects of previous oxandrolone treatment in adult women with Turner syndrome.

Objective: Short stature is a prominent feature of Turner syndrome (TS), which is partially overcome by GH treatment. We have previously reported the results of a trial on the effect of oxandrolone (Ox) in girls with TS. Ox in a dose of 0.

Children with specific language impairment show difficulties in sensory modulation.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether a group of 116 Dutch children with specific language impairment (SLI) shows differences in sensory processing when compared to a control group of age-matched 4-7-year-old typical peers. The Sensory Profile-NL-a standardized questionnaire of 125 items-was completed by caregivers of children in both groups. Children with SLI differed significantly from the control group on all 14 section scores and 4 quadrant scores of the Sensory Profile-NL.

Validity of jitter measures in non-quasi-periodic voices. Part I: perceptual and computer performances in cycle pattern recognition.

The limit of about 5% for reliable quantification of jitter in sustained vowels of dysphonic voices-a widely accepted guideline-deserves critical analysis. The present study pertains to the effect of experience and training on the perceptual (visual) capability of correctly identifying periods in (highly) perturbed signals, and to a comparison of the performance of several programs for voice analysis. Synthesized realistic vowels (/a:/) with exactly known jitter (2.