title: Immediate effectiveness of humming on the supraglottic compression in subjects with muscle tension dysphonia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To verify whether humming corrects supraglottic compression in muscle tension dysphonia (MTD) patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  We enrolled 23 MTD participants (13 male, 10 female) showing supraglottic compression. Each individual was instructed to perform 3 types of phonation under transnasal laryngofiberscopy: natural phonation, humming phonation without pitch change and subsequent um-hum phonation, i.e. humming with pitch glide up as if agreeing with someone. The degree of supraglottic compression was estimated with 2 parameters. The false vocal fold and anterior-posterior indices (the FVF and AP indices) were calculated by normalizing the lateral width and AP length of the visible vocal cords at phonation normalized to the mean vocal cord length at inspiration, respectively. These indices were compared among the tasks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All the MTD participants but 5 females accomplished decreases in the vocal roughness scores upon the phonatory tasks. The whole MTD group showed significant increases in the FVF and AP indices even after humming without pitch change with a dominance of the AP index. The humming-responsive MTD subgroup showed greater increases in both indices than the humming-resistant subgroup.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data demonstrate that humming corrects both the lateral and AP components of supraglottic compression in most MTD patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan.
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.forename: Kiyohito
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hosokawa
authors.forename: Misao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Tadashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yoshii
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Shiromoto
authors.forename: Hidenori
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Inohara
mesh_terms: D000886:Anthropometry; D055154:Dysphonia / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology; D006801:Humans; D001239:Inhalation; D007828:Laryngoscopy; D008297:Male; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D009929:Organ Size; D010699:Phonation / Q000502:physiology*; D063346:Singing / Q000502:physiology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014827:Vocal Cords / Q000473:pathology; D014833:Voice Quality