[Perceptual and automatic voice and speech analysis of chronic laryngitis and T1 vocal cord cancer]. / Perzeptive und maschinelle Stimm- und Sprechanalyse bei chronischer Laryngitis und T1-Stimmlippenkarzinom.

BACKGROUND: Patients with chronic laryngitis and T1 vocal cord cancer were compared using perceptual and text-based objective voice and speech analyses in order to determine which group is more affected in its ability to communicate and whether a distinction between the two pathologies is possible. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In all, 13 patients with histologically proven chronic laryngitis and 13 patients with T1 vocal cord cancer were compared perceptually by five speech therapists on the basis of seven criteria and objectively by a speech recognition system and prosodic analysis. RESULTS: Both, the data of the five speech therapists and the results of the automatic analysis revealed no significant differences between the two patient groups. CONCLUSION: A distinction between chronic laryngitis and T1 vocal cord carcinoma by mere voice and speech analysis is not possible, because the patient groups do not show significant differences in their voice quality.

Correlation between coping strategies and subjective assessment of the voice-related quality of life of patients after resection of T1 and T2 laryngeal tumours.

When coming to terms with a diagnosis of laryngeal cancer, patients find different ways of coping with their illness. These may or may not be related to communication. Vocal aspects of quality of life are particularly important with cancer of the larynx. The correlation between coping and subjective assessment of the voice-related quality of life was assessed in a cross-sectional study of patients after resection of T1 and T2 laryngeal tumours. As part of follow-up care, 55 male cancer patients with partial laryngectomy were asked about their voice-related quality of life and their coping strategies. The Voice-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire (V-RQOL) and the Trier Coping Scales (TCS) were used as survey instruments. The voice-related quality of life of the patients was assessed on average as medium to good. The coping strategy most frequently chosen by patients was 'threat prevention', followed by 'search for social integration', 'rumination', 'search for information and experience exchange' and 'search for support in religion'. Correlations between coping strategy and the voice-related quality of life were weak to moderate and somewhat inconsistent in this patient population. There was no consistent or strong correlation between voice-related quality of life and coping strategies in male patients with partial laryngectomy, so that individual differences appeared to be more important in coping with illness than primarily voice-related factors such as the voice-related quality of life.

[Voice-related quality of life vs. health-related quality of life after partial laryngectomy]. / Stimmbezogene und allgemeine gesundheitsbezogene Lebensqualität kehlkopfteilresezierter Patienten.

BACKGROUND: The assessment of the treatment results of laryngeal cancer includes subjective aspects. Two tools for assessment of the quality of life of patients after treatment of small laryngeal carcinoma were compared: The disease-unspecific short-form-36 health-survey (SF-36) and the specific voice-related-quality-of-life-questionnaire (V-RQOL). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data of 65 patients after partial laryngeal resection was evaluated during regular out clinic examinations. RESULTS: The average V-RQOL total score was 70,0 ± 24,3. Similar results were achieved for the physically (68,2 ± 24,3) and for the emotional (72,5 ± 27,6) subscores of the V-RQOL-survey being lower than the cut-off for healthy voices, which is at 80 points. The SF-36-health survey score was 43,0 ± 10,7 for the physically subscore and 50,2 ± 9,1 for the emotional subscore. Both subscores were rated worse than the age-adjusted standard value for the SF-36. There is a moderate correlation between both questionnaires, which does not depend from the size of the laryngeal carcinoma (T1 or T2). CONCLUSION: The voice-related quality of life is part of the health-related quality of life next to other factors. An amelioration of voice-related quality of life thus should lead to better general, health-related quality of life.

Voice handicap index and voice-related quality of life in small laryngeal carcinoma.

Laryngeal cancer can affect the patients' voice. For assessment of the patients' self-perception of their voice, several tools were introduced into clinical routine. The voice handicap index questionnaire (VHI) is regarded as the "gold standard". However, in benign laryngeal pathologies and in functional dysphonia, the shorter voice-related quality of life questionnaire (V-RQOL) proved to be equivalent. This study examines the correlation of both questionnaires in patients who had been treated for small (T1 and T2) laryngeal cancer. It was performed during regular outclinic examinations. In total, 65 patients aged 62.1 ± 10.0 years completed the German versions of the VHI and V-RQOL. Their average VHI total score was 38.9 ± 26.0 points and the average V-RQOL score was 70.1 ± 24.4%. The total scores correlated with |ρ| = 0.92 and p < 0.01. Both questionnaires give quasi identical results, the shorter V-RQOL may be favoured for clinical application.

[Automated postlaryngectomy telephone test]. / Automatisierung des Postlaryngektomie-Telefontests.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, an objective version of the postlaryngectomy telephone test (PLTT) for measuring speech intelligibility based on automatic speech recognition is presented. METHODS: Thirty-one patients with tracheoesophageal substitute voice (25 men and six women, 63.4+/-8.7 years) were evaluated by 11 naïve listeners. The automatic measurement of speech intelligibility was expressed by means of word accuracy and word recognition rates, or the percentage of correctly recognized words from a word sequence. These automatic measures were compared with the subjectively obtained PLTT values. RESULTS: The average PLTT intelligibility of the 11 naïve listeners was 47%; the automatically obtained word accuracy and word recognition rates were much lower (approximately 0% and 15%, respectively). The correlation between subjective and automatic evaluation, however, reached more than 0.9 in some of the examined cases. CONCLUSION: Automatic speech recognition provides an efficient, objective measure that is equivalent to the overall PLTT intelligibility value.