Acoustic Correlates of Compensatory Adjustments to the Glottic and Supraglottic Structures in Patients with Unilateral Vocal Fold Paralysis

Abstract

The goal of this study was to analyse perceptually and acoustically the voices of patients with Unilateral Vocal Fold Paralysis (UVFP) and compare them to the voices of normal subjects. These voices were analysed perceptually with the GRBAS scale and acoustically using the following parameters: mean fundamental frequency ( F0), standard-deviation of F0, jitter (ppq5), shimmer (apq11), mean harmonics-to-noise ratio (HNR), mean first ( F1) and second ( F2) formants frequency, and standard-deviation of F1 and F2 frequencies. Statistically significant differences were found in all of the perceptual parameters. Also the jitter, shimmer, HNR, standard-deviation of F0, and standard-deviation of the frequency of F2 were statistically different between groups, for both genders. In the male data differences were also found in F1 and F2 frequencies values and in the standard-deviation of the frequency of F1. This study allowed the documentation of the alterations resulting from UVFP and addressed the exploration of parameters with limited information for this pathology.