title: Phonatory Symptoms and Acoustic Findings in Patients with Asthma: A Cross-Sectional Controlled Study.
abstract: To investigate the prevalence of phonatory symptoms, perceptual, acoustic and aerodynamic findings in patients with asthma compared to a control group. This study is a cross-sectional study. A total of 50 subjects, 31 asthmatic and 19 control subjects matched according to age and gender were enrolled in this study. All subjects were asked about the presence or absence of dysphonia, vocal fatigue, phonatory effort, cough, dyspnea, and respiratory failure. Perceptual evaluation, acoustic analysis and aerodynamic measurements were also performed. Patient's self assessment using the Voice Handicap Index 10 was reported. The mean age of patients was 43.5 years with a female to male ratio of 2:1. There was a statistically significant difference in the prevalence of dysphonia between the two groups (32.3 vs. 5.3%,pvalue 0.025) with a non-significant higher prevalence of vocal fatigue and phonatory effort. The overall grade of dysphonia was significantly higher in asthmatics compared to controls (pvalue 0.002). Patients with asthma had also significantly higher degree of asthenia and straining (pvalue of 0.04 and 0.008, respectively) with borderline significant difference with respect to roughness. There was no significant difference in the means of any of the acoustic parameters between patients and controls except for Shimmer, which was higher in the asthmatic group (pvalue of 0.037). There was also no significant difference in the Maximum phonation time between the two groups. Dysphonia is significantly more prevalent in patients with asthma compared to controls.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Abdul Latif
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Hamdan
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Georges
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ziade
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Rafic Hariri University Hospital, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Maher
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kasti
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Leslie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Akl
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Ibrahim
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bawab
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, American University of Beirut, P.O. Box: 11-0236, Beirut, Lebanon.
authors.forename: Nadim
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kanj
keywords: Acoustics; Asthma; Dysphonia; Respiration; Voice disorders