INTRAGLOTTAL CONTACT PRESSURES IN HUMAN VOICE PRODUCTION

Christiane Mantay1, Frank Müller1, Arne Dippel1, James Kobler2 & Markus Hess1
1University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Department of Phoniatrics and Pedaudiology; 2Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital Boston, USA

ID 1704
[full paper]

Some fundamental questions concerning voice production remain unanswered despite numerous research approaches in various fields of voice science. It is widely believed that high intraglottal pressures may cause organic voice disorders – like vocal fold nodules or contact granulomas. This hypothesis seems reasonable but is difficult to prove given the challenges of pressure measurement and of establishing a causative link to disease. In this study we present a method for intraglottal contact pressure measurement in humans with a specially designed subminiature sensor. While implementing the measurement of the contact pressures, videolaryngoscopy is simultaneously used for online-monitoring. The new generation of subminiature sensors now allows us to make pressure measurements along the membranous vocal fold. We demonstrate contact pressure values for 10 healthy female and 10 healthy male subjects as well as for 10 patients with organic voice disorder. A video with endoscopic pictures illustrates the investigation procedure and data collection.

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