DESIGN & SETTING: This cross-sectional study was conducted in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center between May and September 2017.
PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Three hundred males and females with mean age of 30.23 (±11.04) years were recruited in equal number for each gender (n = 150) and divided into 3 groups of 50 according to their BMI (n = 50). The three groups are non-obese (BMI≤22.9kg/m2); obese (BMI between 23 and 34.9 kg/m2); and morbidly obese (BMI >35kg/m2). BMI and Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10) were obtained. The average of three readings of MPT was measured using a stopwatch while the participants phonate /a/, /i/ and /u/. Unpaired t-test and ANOVA were used to compare means between and across groups. Spearman correlation assessed the correlation between MPT and BMI.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The normative values of MPT of both genders and correlation with BMI were analyzed.
RESULTS: The MPT normative values for males and females in the non-obese group were of 21.41 (±6.85) seconds and 18.05 (±5.06)seconds respectively for /a/. The MPT for all vowels were significantly higher in males across the BMI groups (P ≤ 0.05). There was low negative correlation between MPT and BMI in both genders.
CONCLUSIONS: This pioneering study documented the normative values of MPT among Malaysians showed that males had longer MPT than females across the BMI groups. Obesity affects the MPT in that as BMI increases, the MPT decreases.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was carried out in the Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery Department of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC) from June 2015 to May 2016. The mVHI-10 was produced following a rigorous forward and backward translation. One hundred participants, including 50 healthy volunteers (17 male, 33 female) and 50 patients with voice disorders (26 male, 24 female), were recruited to complete the mVHI-10 before flexible laryngoscopic examinations and acoustic analysis. The mVHI-10 was repeated in 2 weeks via telephone interview or clinic visit. Its reliability and validity were assessed using interclass correlation.
RESULTS: The test-retest reliability for total mVHI-10 and each item score was high, with the Cronbach alpha of >0.90. The total mVHI-10 score and domain scores were significantly higher (P
METHODS: Two middle-aged women with vagal paraganglioma undergoing an excision operation underwent immediate selective laryngeal reinnervation using the phrenic nerve and ansa cervicalis as the donor nerve. Multidimensional outcome measures were employed pre-operatively, and at 1, 6 and 12 months post-operatively.
RESULTS: The voice handicap index-10 score improved from 23 (patient 1) and 18 (patient 2) at 1 month post-operation, to 5 (patient 1) and 1 (patient 2) at 12 months. The Eating Assessment Tool 10 score improved from 20 (patient 1) and 24 (patient 2) at 1 month post-operation, to 3 (patient 1) and 1 (patient 2) at 12 months. There was slight vocal fold abduction observed in patient one and no obvious abduction in patient two.
CONCLUSION: Selective reinnervation is safe to perform following vagal paraganglioma excision conducted on the same side. Voice and swallowing improvements were demonstrated, but no significant vocal fold abduction was achieved.
METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study involving 27 patients with symptoms of OSAS seen at a tertiary institutional center and 25 normal controls performed between June 2015 and June 2016. All patients and controls underwent a polysomnography (PSG) test and were diagnosed with OSAS based on the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI). Patients are those with OSAS symptoms and had AHI > 5, whereas controls are staffs from the ophthalmology clinic without clinical criteria for OSAS and had PSG result of AHI
METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A feasibility study to test the practicality of running a multicentre, randomised clinical trial of surgery for UVFP, including: (1) a qualitative study to understand the recruitment process and how it operates in clinical centres and (2) a small randomised trial of 30 participants recruited at 3 UK sites comparing non-selective laryngeal reinnervation to type I thyroplasty. Participants will be followed up for 12 months. The primary outcome focuses on recruitment and retention, with secondary outcomes covering voice, swallowing and quality of life.
ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval was received from National Research Ethics Service-Committee Bromley (reference 11/LO/0583). In addition to dissemination of results through presentation and publication of peer-reviewed articles, results will be shared with key clinician and patient groups required to develop the future large-scale randomised controlled trial.
TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN90201732; 16 December 2015.
DESIGN: Cross sectional reliability study.
SETTING: University teaching hospital.
METHODS: Fifty healthy volunteers and 50 voice disorder patients had supervised recordings in a quiet room using OperaVOX by the iPod's internal microphone with sampling rate of 45 kHz. A five-seconds recording of vowel/a/was used to measure fundamental frequency (F0), jitter, shimmer and noise-to-harmonic ratio (NHR). All healthy volunteers and 21 patients had a second recording. The recorded voices were also analysed using the MDVP. The inter- and intrasoftware reliability was analysed using intraclass correlation (ICC) test and Bland-Altman (BA) method. Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the acoustic parameters between healthy volunteers and patients.
RESULTS: Nine of 50 patients had severe aperiodic voice. The ICC was high with a confidence interval of >0.75 for the inter- and intrasoftware reliability except for the NHR. For the intersoftware BA analysis, excluding the severe aperiodic voice data sets, the bias (95% LOA) of F0, jitter, shimmer and NHR was 0.81 (11.32, -9.71); -0.13 (1.26, -1.52); -0.52 (1.68, -2.72); and 0.08 (0.27, -0.10). For the intrasoftware reliability, it was -1.48 (18.43, -21.39); 0.05 (1.31, -1.21); -0.01 (2.87, -2.89); and 0.005 (0.20, -0.18), respectively. Normative data from the healthy volunteers were obtained. There was a significant difference in all acoustic parameters between volunteers and patients measured by the Opera-VOX (P