title: Assessment of voice and speech symptoms in early Parkinson's disease by the Robertson dysarthria profile.
abstract: Changes in voice and speech are thought to involve 75-90% of people with PD, but the impact of PD progression on voice/speech parameters is not well defined. In this study, we assessed voice/speech symptoms in 48 parkinsonian patients staging <3 on the modified Hoehn and Yahr scale and 37 healthy subjects using the Robertson dysarthria profile (a clinical-perceptual method exploring all components potentially involved in speech difficulties), the Voice handicap index (a validated measure of the impact of voice symptoms on quality of life) and the speech evaluation parameter contained in the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale part III (UPDRS-III). Accuracy and metric properties of the Robertson dysarthria profile were also measured. On Robertson dysarthria profile, all parkinsonian patients yielded lower scores than healthy control subjects. Differently, the Voice Handicap Index and the speech evaluation parameter contained in the UPDRS-III could detect speech/voice disturbances in 10 and 75% of PD patients, respectively. Validation procedure in Parkinson's disease patients showed that the Robertson dysarthria profile has acceptable reliability, satisfactory internal consistency and scaling assumptions, lack of floor and ceiling effects, and partial correlations with UPDRS-III and Voice Handicap Index. We concluded that speech/voice disturbances are widely identified by the Robertson dysarthria profile in early parkinsonian patients, even when the disturbances do not carry a significant level of disability. Robertson dysarthria profile may be a valuable tool to detect speech/voice disturbances in Parkinson's disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neurosciences and Sensory Organs, Policlinico, "Aldo Moro" University of Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare 1, 70124, Bari, Italy. gdefazio@neurol.uniba.it.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Defazio
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neurosciences and Sensory Organs, Policlinico, "Aldo Moro" University of Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare 1, 70124, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guerrieri
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neurosciences and Sensory Organs, Policlinico, "Aldo Moro" University of Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare 1, 70124, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniele
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liuzzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neurosciences and Sensory Organs, Policlinico, "Aldo Moro" University of Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare 1, 70124, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Angelo Fabio
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Gigante
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neurosciences and Sensory Organs, Policlinico, "Aldo Moro" University of Bari, Piazza Giulio Cesare 1, 70124, Bari, Italy.
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: di Nicola
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004401:Dysarthria / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013060:Speech; D013068:Speech Production Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D014831:Voice
keywords: Dysarthria; Parkinson’s disease; Robertson dysarthria profile; UPDRS-III; Voice handicap index