Voice profile of patients with laryngeal pathologies in Punjabi speaking Indian

• Author Details:   
• Richa Arya ^*
• Gurbax Singh
• Satish Verma

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Background:  There are a number of pathologies leading to hoarseness. Factors like age, gender and race contribute in perception of voice in addition to disorders. The present study aims to compare the findings of various acoustic parameters between subjects with and without laryngeal pathologies and to compare the acoustic parameters in males and females in Punjabi speaking population.

Materials and Methods: A total of 500 subjects in the age group of 20-50 years was included under this study. Out of them 400 were in the study group having hoarse voice quality secondary to voice pathologies [glottic chink, chronic laryngitis, mass pathology on vocal folds (vocal nodules and vocal polyps) and vocal fold palsy] and 100 were in the age and gender matched control group. Voice analysis was done with /i/ vowel via computer with Dr Speech Software.

Results: The Jitter (%), Shimmer (%), SD Fo and Amplitude tremor were significantly higher in the study group (pathological voices), whereas the NNE, SNR and Ratio were significantly lower in the study group as compared to the control group. The Mean Fo of males is 132.23 Hz (125.48Hz-144.22 Hz) and females is 232.35 Hz (216.40 Hz-252.47 Hz) in Punjabi speaking Indian population (18-50 years). The females have significantly higher values in Normalized Noise Energy, HNR, Fo Tremor, and SNR in the control group.

Conclusion: Acoustic analysis of voice is an important tool to differentiate normal and pathological voices. This study helped in establishing the normal voice parameter ranges in Punjabi speaking adult population.

Keywords: Pathological voice, Acoustic voice analysis, Dr Speech, Punjabi speaking population, Normal voice parameters