System for measurement of vocal fold polyps’ and glottal gap dimensions

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to quantify the size of vocal fold polyps, and to investigate the relationship between the glottal gap and parameters of acoustic voice analysis and phonetography. Materials and methods: Eighty-one microlaryngoscopic images and digital recordings of sustained vowel [a] acquired from the patients with VFP were employed in this study. Vocal fold images were collected during routine direct microlaryngoscopy. Digital samples of sustained vowel [a] were recorded in a soundproof booth on a digitized Sony Mini Disc recorder MDS-101. Acoustic voice parameters and Phonetograms were analyzed using Dr.Speech (Tiger Elemetrics) software. Microlaryngoscopic images were processed by ELINTA software. The relative length and width of VFP were calculated in pixels, and the areas of VFP and glottal gap were calculated in square pixels, respectively. Results: A statistically significant slight correlation between relative dimensions of VFP and jitter was revealed. However, a statistically significant moderate negative correlation was found among the ratio of VFP and glottal gap areas and the normalized noise energy and harmonics to noise ratio. A mild positive correlation between ratio of VFP and glottal gap areas and some Phonetogram parameters was established. This study is still ongoing and recent results will be presented. Conclusion: Results of our study verify that quantitative microlaryngoscopic measurements of VFP and glottal gap maybe a useful tool for objective assessment of glottic incompetence and voice impairment. This study was supported by COST Action 2103 ‘‘Advanced Voice Assessment’’.