title: Acoustic assessment of erygmophonic speech of Moroccan laryngectomized patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Acoustic evaluation of alaryngeal voices is among the most prominent issues in speech analysis field. In fact, many methods have been developed to date to substitute the classic perceptual evaluation. The Aim of this study is to present our experience in erygmophonic speech objective assessment and to discuss the most widely used methods of acoustic speech appraisal. through a prospective case-control study we have measured acoustic parameters of speech quality during one year of erygmophonic rehabilitation therapy of Moroccan laryngectomized patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  We have assessed acoustic parameters of erygmophonic speech samples of eleven laryngectomized patients through the speech rehabilitation therapy. Acoustic parameters were obtained by perturbation analysis method and linear predictive coding algorithms also through the broadband spectrogram.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Using perturbation analysis methods, we have found erygmophonic voice to be significantly poorer than normal speech and it exhibits higher formant frequency values. However, erygmophonic voice shows also higher and extremely variable Error values that were greater than the acceptable level. And thus, live a doubt on the reliability of those analytic methods results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Acoustic parameters for objective evaluation of alaryngeal voices should allow a reliable representation of the perceptual evaluation of the quality of speech. This requirement has not been fulfilled by the common methods used so far. Therefore, acoustical assessment of erygmophonic speech needs more investigations.
authors.affiliation: ENT Head and Neck Department, Hassan II University Hospital, Fez, Morocco.
authors.forename: Naouar
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ouattassi
authors.affiliation: ENT Head and Neck Department, Hassan II University Hospital, Fez, Morocco.
authors.forename: Najib
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Benmansour
authors.affiliation: ENT Head and Neck Department, Hassan II University Hospital, Fez, Morocco.
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ridal
authors.affiliation: ENT Head and Neck Department, Hassan II University Hospital, Fez, Morocco.
authors.forename: Zouheir
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zaki
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology, Clinical Research and Community Health Department, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Fez, Morocco.
authors.forename: Karima
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bendahhou
authors.affiliation: Epidemiology, Clinical Research and Community Health Department, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Fez, Morocco.
authors.forename: Chakib
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nejjari
authors.affiliation: Automatic, Signals and Systems Department, ENSA Tangers, Morocco.
authors.forename: Abdeljabbar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cherkaoui
authors.affiliation: ENT Head and Neck Department, Hassan II University Hospital, Fez, Morocco.
authors.forename: Mohammed Nouredine El Amine
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: El Alami
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D000368:Aged; D000465:Algorithms; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D006801:Humans; D007825:Laryngectomy / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009018:Morocco; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013071:Speech, Alaryngeal; D014833:Voice Quality
keywords: Erygmophonic speech; formants; perturbation analysis method; spectrogram