Effect of Ventral Intermediate Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation on Vocal Tremor in Essential Tremor.

Background: There is a paucity of literature examining the effect of Ventral Intermediate Nucleus (VIM) deep brain stimulation (DBS) on voice in patients with vocal tremor (VT). Objective: Investigate the effect of unilateral and bilateral VIM DBS on voice in patients with Essential Tremor (ET) and VT. Methods: All patients receiving VIM DBS surgery underwent voice evaluation pre- and six-months post-operatively. We collected patient-reported quality-of-life outcome measures and acoustic voice measures of sustained phonation and connected speech. Acoustic measures specific to VT included amplitude tremor intensity index (ATRI), frequency tremor intensity index (FTRI), rate and extent of F0 modulation, and rate and extent of intensity modulation. Results: Five patients, age 72.8 ± 2.6 years, 4 female, 1 male with mean disease duration of 29 ± 26.2 years met the inclusion criteria and were included. Two subjects had bilateral procedure and three had unilateral. We observed significant improvements in measures of vocal tremor including ATRI, FTRI, rate of F0 modulation, rate of intensity modulation, and extent of intensity modulation, as well as patient reported voice-related quality of life measured by VHI-10. Bilateral VIM DBS cases showed greater improvement in VT than unilateral cases. Conclusion: Both unilateral and bilateral VIM DBS resulted in significant improvement of VT, with more improvement demonstrated in patients having bilateral as compared to unilateral VIM DBS. In addition, patients also reported significant improvements in voice-related quality of life. If larger studies confirm our results, VIM DBS has the potential to become a treatment specifically for disabling VT.

Chronic Cough: Evaluation of Patients' Motivation to Undergo Cough Suppression Therapy.

INTRODUCTION: Chronic cough is a persistent cough lasting greater than eight weeks. The prevalence rate is estimated to be 9% to 33% in the United States. There are several treatment modalities described in current literature including medical, surgical, and behavioral interventions. Behavioral intervention with a speech-language pathologist (SLP) includes education on laryngeal hygiene and the voluntary control of cough as well as respiratory retraining to suppress or reduce the duration of cough. Cough suppression therapy, like other behavioral therapies, requires patient motivation and commitment to participation and completion in therapy. METHODS: This study was a prospective cross-sectional survey at a single academic institution. Adult patients evaluated by a laryngologist for chronic cough regardless of their primary etiology were included. Patients who were tracheostomy dependent, on oxygen therapy, had vocal fold paralysis/immobility, or had undergone previous laryngeal surgery were excluded. Patients were surveyed at the end of the initial clinic visit or at the beginning of the first cough suppression therapy session. Subjects reported their motivational factors for undergoing cough suppression therapy. RESULTS: The majority of patients, 21 (58.33%), identified as female, 15 patients (41.20%) identified as male, and no patients identified as transgender, nonbinary, and/or other gender. The patients in this study had a mean age of 57.75 (12.12) years. 35 patients (97.22%) were interested in cough suppression therapy. The mean presenting cough severity index (CSI) was 19.39 (10.28) with the mean cough duration of 8.69 (12.10) years. CONCLUSIONS: Patients primarily sought cough suppression therapy due to intrinsic factors rather than extrinsic influence. By understanding the relationship between symptomatology and patient motivation, clinicians can better counsel their patients and improve methods to assess candidacy for behavioral treatment.

Auditory-perceptual voice and speech evaluation in ATP1A3 positive patients.

INTRODUCTION: Bulbar symptoms are frequent in patients with rapid-onset dystonia-parkinsonism (RDP). RDP is caused by ATP1A3 mutations, with onset typically within 30 days of stressor exposure. Most patients have impairments in speech (dysarthria) and voice (dysphonia). These have not been quantified. We aimed to formally characterize these in RDP subjects as compared to mutation negative family controls. METHODS: We analyzed recordings in 32 RDP subjects (male = 21, female = 11) and 29 mutation negative controls (male = 15, female = 14). Three raters, blinded to mutation status, rated speech and vocal quality. Dysarthria was classified by subtype. Dysphonia was rated via the GRBAS (Grade, Roughness, Breathiness, Asthenia, Strain) scale. We used general neurological exams and the Burke-Fahn-Marsden Dystonia Rating Scale (BFMDRS) to assess dysarthria, dystonia, and speech/swallowing dysfunction. RESULTS: The presence of dysarthria was more frequent in RDP subjects compared to controls (72% vs. 17%, p < 0.0001). GRBAS voice ratings were worse in the RDP cohort across nearly all categories. Dysarthria in RDP was associated with concordant cranial nerve 9-11 dysfunction (54%, p = 0.048), speech/swallowing dysfunction (96%, p = 0.0003); and oral dystonia (88%, p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Quantitative voice and speech analyses are important in assessing RDP. Subjects frequently experience dysarthria and dysphonia. Dystonia is not the exclusive voice abnormality present in this population. In our analysis, RDP subjects more frequently experienced bulbar symptoms than controls. GRBAS scores are useful in quantifying voice impairment, potentially allowing for better assessments of progression or treatment effects. Future directions include using task-specific diagnostic and perceptual voice evaluation tools to further assess laryngeal dystonia.