Objective measurements of voice treatment efficacy for voice-disordered patients

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to investigate a set of objective measurements with high reliability and validity in quantifying voice treatment efficacy. Thirty female voicedisordered patients in the ENT Department received perceptual judgement, videostroboscopy, acoustic analysis and aerodynamic analysis before and after voice treatment. Paired t-test and Spearman rank correlation were performed to analyse test–retest and intra- as well as inter-subject reliability, the strength of linear relationship between subjective and objective measures, and clinical significance of voice treatment. Test–retest and intra- as well as inter-subject reliability for most of the objective measures and all subjective measures is 0.9. Most objective measures show a significant correlation to subjective measures. Acoustic and aerodynamic measures of HIN, H1-H2, number of harmonics, speaking F0, speaking intensity, physiological frequency range, physiological intensity range, maximum phonation time and intraoral press...