Cepstral analysis of voice in persons with vocal nodules.
OBJECTIVE
Traditional measures of dysphonia were reported to be unreliable, and the measurements of cepstral peak prominence (CPP) have been shown to correlate well with perceptions of breathiness. Hence, the present study was hypothesized that there would be abnormal reduction of the cepstral peak in the speakers with vocal nodules relative to the normal controls as they are characterized by hoarse and breathy voice due to inadequate closure of vocal folds.


METHODS
Phonation of sustained vowel /a/ was subjected to acoustic analysis using Computerized Speech Lab (CSL model 4150) software. The vowels were analyzed acoustically with the measurement of CPP.


RESULTS
Independent t test was employed to compare the significant differences between the clinical and the control groups in both males and females. The results revealed significant differences across the two groups at P<0.05. The obtained results were discussed with respect to the underlying pathophysiology.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study investigated the CPP in subjects with vocal nodules. Cepstral deviations in the clinical group are explained due to the presence of laryngeal pathology leading to the lower values of CPP.
Radish Kumar
B
B
Department of Audiology and Speech Language Pathology, Kasturba Medical College (Unit of Manipal University), Mangalore, India. radheesh_b@yahoo.co.in
Bhat
Jayashree S
JS
Prasad
Neitica
N
D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D055154:Dysphonia / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D010699:Phonation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D014827:Vocal Cords / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014833:Voice Quality; D055815:Young Adult