Clinical Investigation for Voice Disorders

In the cases with voice disorders, voice case history, special examinations and function tests for voice were required. The voice case history is necessary for obtain the etiology of the voice disorder as well as the factors contributing to the problem. This is important for diagnosis of voice disorders in addition to a general back ground of the patient's growth and development including speech and language. Among those tests, auscultation of voice is the most important for diagnosis of some types of voice disorders, such as hormonal disturbance, spastic dysphonia and so on. It is also helpful to promote further careful examinations for any voice disorders. Maxiumum phonation time and mean air flow rate during comfortable phonation with the air volume similar to tidal air is useful for rough evaluation of the laryngeal efficiency during modal speech. Stroboscopy is very useful for clinical evaluation of abnormality in the mode of vocal cord vibration and analysis of ultra high speed film is the best way to investigate vocal cord vibration in detail. Acoustical analysis of voice appears to be usable for a screening test with tape-recorded voice. Electromyography is greatly valuable for determining prognosis recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis.