Vocal Fold Dissipated Power in Females with Hyperfunctional Voice Disorders.
Hamzeh Ghasemzadeh, Robert E Hillman, Víctor M Espinoza and 2 others
PMID 39426910WHAT IT FOUND
Females with phonotraumatic vocal hyperfunction had higher vocal fold dissipated power than matched controls; females with non-phonotraumatic hyperfunction did not.
Calibrating the neck sensor for each person kept this difference detectable; generic sound-level estimates erased it.
Key findings
01Females with PVH had significantly higher vocal fold oscillation dissipated power than matched controls.
02Females with NPVH did not have significantly higher dissipated power than matched controls.
03The PVH-control difference in dissipated power disappeared when subglottal pressure was estimated from sound level, but returned when it was estimated from subject-specific calibration of a neck-surface accelerometer signal.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study included 64 females only, with 16 in each group, so it says nothing about males, children, or larger clinical populations. Patients had mostly mild-to-moderate dysphonia, so the result may not apply to severe voice disorders. The measurements came from short lab tasks, not daily-life speech, so it does not show what happens during real communication. Only the oscillation part of dissipated power was estimated; the collision part, which may matter in PVH, was not measured. The dissipated power formula is an order-of-magnitude estimate, and only subglottal pressure was subject-specific for each participant. The study did not test treatment outcomes or whether dissipated power predicts lesion development.
Declared interests
Two authors report financial interests in InnoVoyce LLC, a company developing voice-related technologies: one has board membership and one has consulting or advisory. The paper does not state a funding source.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read higher dissipated power as proof that PVH causes vocal fold lesions or that this measure is ready for daily-life monitoring. The study used short lab recordings, only the oscillation component, females with mostly mild-to-moderate dysphonia, and did not test ambulatory dissipated energy.