Is the sagittal postural alignment different in normal and dysphonic adult speakers?
OBJECTIVE
Clinical research in the field of voice disorders, in particular functional dysphonia, has suggested abnormal laryngeal posture due to muscle adaptive changes, although specific evidence regarding body posture has been lacking. The aim of our study was to verify if there were significant differences in sagittal spine alignment between normal (41 subjects) and dysphonic speakers (33 subjects).


METHODS
Cross-sectional study.


METHODS
Seventy-four adults, 35 males and 39 females, were submitted to sagittal plane photographs so that spine alignment could be analyzed through the Digimizer-MedCalc Software Ltd program. Perceptual and acoustic evaluation and nasoendoscopy were used for dysphonic judgments: normal and dysphonic speakers.


RESULTS
For thoracic length curvature (TL) and for the kyphosis index (KI), a significant effect of dysphonia was observed with mean TL and KI significantly higher for the dysphonic speakers than for the normal speakers. Concerning the TL variable, a significant effect of sex was found, in which the mean of the TL was higher for males than females. The interaction between dysphonia and sex did not have a significant effect on TL and KI variables. For the lumbar length curvature variable, a significant main effect of sex was demonstrated; there was no significant main effect of dysphonia or significant sex×dysphonia interaction.


CONCLUSIONS
Findings indicated significant differences in some sagittal spine posture measures between normal and dysphonic speakers. Postural measures can add useful information to voice assessment protocols and should be taken into account when considering particular treatment strategies.
Escola Superior de Saúde, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, Leiria, Portugal; Centro de Linguística, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal. Electronic address: debora.franco@ipleiria.pt.
Débora
D
Franco
Centro de Linguística, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal; Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
Fernando
F
Martins
Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
Mário
M
Andrea
Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal; Centro Interdisciplinar de Performance Humana (CIPER), Lisboa, Portugal.
Isabel
I
Fragoso
Escola Superior de Saúde, Instituto Politécnico de Leiria, Leiria, Portugal; Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal.
Luís
L
Carrão
Faculdade de Motricidade Humana, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal; Centro Interdisciplinar de Performance Humana (CIPER), Lisboa, Portugal.
Júlia
J
Teles
D000328:Adult; D055154:Dysphonia / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004724:Endoscopy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007738:Kyphosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007830:Larynx / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013904:Thoracic Vertebrae / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
Dysphonia; Functional dysphonia; Kyphosis index; Lumbar length curvature; Posture; Thoracic length curvature; Voice disorders