Laryngeal Aerodynamic Analysis in Assisting With the Diagnosis of Muscle Tension Dysphonia

SummaryObjective/HypothesisTo estimate the aerodynamic multiparameters for patients with muscular tension dysphonia (MTD) and evaluate voice aerodynamic analysis for assisting the diagnosis of this disorder.Study DesignA prospective study.MethodsVoice aerodynamic parameters, including subglottal pressure (SGP) level, glottal resistance (GR), mean airflow rate (MFR), and maximum phonation time (MPT), for 26 MTD patients and 27 normal adults were analyzed using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis and multivariate logistic regression.ResultsFor male samples, MTD patients had higher SGP (P = 0.001), higher GR (P = 0.012), lower MFR (P = 0.042), and shorter MPT (P = 0.027), whereas for female samples, the difference between cases and controls was statistically significant only in SGP (P < 0.001) and MPT (P < 0.001). ROC analysis showed that the threshold of 8.175 cm H2O for SGP achieved a good classification for MTD, with an adequate sensitivity (76.9%) and the perfect specificity (100%). Finally, multivariate logistic regression established a credible model (with SGP and MPT as the predictors) for classifying MTD, with a 92.5% percentage correct.ConclusionsThis analysis indicates that aerodynamics evaluation could help the diagnosis of MTD patients, jointly with medical history scrutiny, physical examination, fibrolaryngoscopy, and/or videoendostroboscopy.