Discriminating hypofunctional and hyperfunctional voice disorders through specific acoustic measures.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the specific acoustic parameters to differentiate hypofunctional and hyperfunctional dysphonic groups, by comparing them with normophonic using multiparametric acoustic measures: Acoustic Voice Quality Index (AVQI v. 03.01), which objectively assess hoarseness and Acoustic Breathiness Index (ABI), which quantifies overall breathiness, along with their constituent parameters.

METHODS

A total of 92 participants (aged 19–40) were included, divided into three groups: 46 normophonic individuals, 30 with hyperfunctional dysphonia, and 16 with hypofunctional dysphonia. AVQI and ABI values, along with their constituent parameters for sustained vowel “sv” and connected speech “cs” samples, were obtained using the Praat version 6.3.12.

RESULTS

The results of One-way ANOVA followed by post hoc analysis revealed a significant difference for Smoothened Cepstral Peak Prominence (CPPS) was observed between hyperfunctional and hypofunctional groups; however, no significance was found in the mean AVQI value and its other constituent parameters. Further, a significant difference was observed for ABI values and their constituent parameters: GNE, HNR-D, and H1H2 across hyperfunctional and hypofunctional groups. In contrast, other ABI constituent parameters showed no significant differences.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study found that ABI and a few of its constituent parameters (GNE, HNR-D, H1H2) and CPPS (from AVQI) help in discriminating hypofunctional and hyperfunctional conditions significantly. These acoustic measures can complement auditory-perceptual assessment and contribute to more accurate clinical evaluation and diagnosis of voice disorders.