Abstract
Pigs have become important animal models in voice research. Several objective parameters exist to characterize the pig voice, but it is not clear which of them are sensitive to the impaired voice quality after laryngeal injury or surgery. In order to conduct meaningful voice research in pigs, it is critical to have standard functional voice outcome measures that can distinguish between normal and impaired voices. For this reason, we investigated 17 acoustic parameters before and early after surgery in three Yucatan mini pigs. Four parameters showed consistent changes between pre- and post-surgery recordings, mostly related to decreased spectral energy in higher frequencies after surgery. We recommend two of these, 50% spectral energy quartile (Q50) and Flux, for objective functional voice assessment of pigs undergoing laryngeal surgery. The long-term goal of this process is to enable quantitative voice outcome tracking of laryngeal surgical interventions in porcine models.
Highlights
Voice impairment is a major factor in public health, affecting the economic prosperity of society as a whole, as well as the social functioning and quality of life of individuals [1,2,3].Roy et al interviewed a random sample of 1326 adults in Iowa and Utah and found that the lifetime prevalence of a voice disorder was 29.9%
At least 31 normal squeals were recorded before vocal fold implantation surgery
We focus on distinguishing the acoustic features which are altered early after surgery when the vocal fold microstructure remains notably abnormal
Summary
Voice impairment is a major factor in public health, affecting the economic prosperity of society as a whole, as well as the social functioning and quality of life of individuals [1,2,3].Roy et al interviewed a random sample of 1326 adults in Iowa and Utah and found that the lifetime prevalence of a voice disorder was 29.9%. Another study by Cohen et al, reviewing data of 386 patients with a short-term disability claim due to a laryngeal disorder, found that voice disorders were associated with an average missed work attendance of 39.2 days in 12 months. This resulted in an average wage loss of $4437.89 per patient [2]. The effect on quality of life was shown by Marmor et al One of their findings was that patients with reported voice problems experienced nearly twice the likelihood of depressive symptoms [3]
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