title: Nasalance measures in German-speaking cleft patients.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate nasalance measures in German-speaking patients with different types of repaired cleft lip and palate and to find out if significant nasalance gender differences exist in the different cleft groups. A total of 125 German-speaking cleft patients (74 male and 51 female) were included in this study: 18 patients with isolated unilateral cleft lip (UCL; mean age: 13.00 +/- 2.03 years), 66 patients with complete unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP; mean age: 14.80 +/- 3.45 years), 25 patients with isolated cleft palate (CP; mean age: 14.60 +/- 3.48 years), and 16 patients with complete bilateral cleft lip and palate (BCLP; mean age: 14.30 +/- 3.61 years). Nasalance data were collected and computed using the NasalView hardware/software system (Fa. Tiger Electronics, Seattle, WA). Speech stimuli according to a modified Heidelberg Rhinophonia Assessment Form (sustained vowels "a," "e," "i," "o," and "u"; oral and nasal sentences; and three oral-nasal reading passages) were used to obtain nasalance scores. Nasalance distance and ratio were also calculated for the oral and nasal sentences and for one of the oral-nasal reading passages. Unpaired t tests showed no significant gender nasalance differences in each cleft group. Analysis of variance showed no significant differences in mean nasalance distance and ratio. For the nasal sentence, a significant difference (P = 0.032) in mean nasalance scores was found between the UCL and UCLP groups.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Germany. gwen.swennen@gmx.de
authors.forename: Gwen R J
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Swennen
authors.forename: Hannes
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Grimaldi
authors.forename: Juliane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Upheber
authors.forename: Franz-Josef
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.forename: Rupert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dempf
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002971:Cleft Lip / Q000150:complications*; D002972:Cleft Palate / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014832:Voice Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D014833:Voice Quality