Subjective voice analysis in patients with muscular tension dysphonia: comparison between clinician and patient evaluation

Background This study evaluated the correlation between patient and clinician subjective voice analysis in a group of patients suffering from muscular tension dysphonia. This disease does not usually present with organic lesions, and voice analysis is crucial to evaluate it. Methods A retrospective study with 75 patients was performed. Correlation between grade, roughness, breathiness, asthenia and strain scale and voice handicap index-10 was analysed. Any possible influence of the type of muscular tension dysphonia on these two scales was studied. Results There are only a few studies that correlate voice handicap index-10 and the grade, roughness, breathiness, asthenia and strain scale; however, none of them are specific for patients suffering from muscular tension dysphonia. A moderate correlation (r = 0.56) was found. No influence of muscular tension dysphonia type on voice handicap index-10 score was found, but muscular tension dysphonia type 4 had worse grade, roughness, breathiness, asthenia and strain scale scores than other muscular tension dysphonia types. This could be explained if muscular tension dysphonia type 4 is considered to be the most severe form of this disease. Conclusion The use of assessment scales based on the opinion of both the clinician and patient must be considered as complementary clinical tools in order to perform a complete assessment of dysphonia.

Voice quality and voice dynamics data

Acoustic and perceptual auditory analysis procedures present themselves as clinical tools which give support to the understanding of the speech features of hearing impaired children (HIC). Voice quality stems from the overlapped action of the larynx, the supralaryngeal vocal tract and the level of muscular tension throughout the speech flow. Nonetheless, voice dynamics is characterized by frequency, duration and intensity variations. This research aimed at investigating acoustic and perceptive correlates of a HIC child’s voice and dynamic quality. The child, who has a cochlear implanted, had his speech samples collected during speech therapy sessions. The male subject (R), who uses a unilateral cochlear implant (UCI), had his speech production samples recorded when he was 5 (05 samples) and 6 years old (05 samples), and which were later tagged Cut A and Cut B respectively. The recorded corpus was acoustically analyzed through the use of the SGEXpressionEvaluator script (Barbosa, 2009) running on the free software Praat v10. The measures which were automatically extracted by the script correspond to the fundamental frequency –f0, first f0 derivative, intensity, spectral fall and long term spectrum. The perceptual auditory analysis of the voice quality was based on the VPAS-PB script (Camargo e Madureira, 2008). The perceptual auditory judgments and the acoustic measures were subjected to statistical analysis procedures. At first the, the data (perceptual and acoustic) were separately analyzed through a hierarchical and agglomerative cluster analysis. Subsequently, they were examined together through the principal component analysis. Results revealed the existence of correspondence between the acoustic and perceptual auditory data. In the audio recorded data samples from Cut B (one year after the first one) greater variability tendencies in acoustic measures of f0 could be observed associated with laryngeal hyper function at the perceptual level plus silent pauses and the reduction of speech rate. From the integrated acoustic and perceptual analysis it was possible to keep a record of the child’s oral language development process. The data analysis in this study allowed the observation of several interaction levels between the vocal tract (lip movement extension adjusts, tongue and jaw, associated with velopharyngeal adjusts and muscular tension from the larynx), plus the inspection of speech dynamics elements (habitual pitch and speech rate) of a child’s speech who has a UCI implanted during a one-year-speech-therapy-process period. This source of information made the characterization of the child’s evolution possible, especially in terms of perceptual auditory analysis descriptions being phonetically motivated by the speech dynamics quality.

Temperature Distribution of Selected Body Surfaces in Scoliosis Based on Static Infrared Thermography

The purpose of the research was to assess the usefulness of thermography as a complementary method in musculoskeletal dysfunction, with particular emphasis on scoliosis. The children, aged 7–16, were classified into one of two groups: the study group—children with scoliosis (n = 20), and the reference group—healthy children (n = 20). All children underwent anthropometric tests, body mass index determination, four pictures each with a FLIR T1030sc HD thermal imaging camera, and measurement of spinal rotation with a scoliometer (Gima, Italy). There is a temperature differential (about 4 °C) within the upper and lower body in children. In healthy children, differences in temperature of contralateral areas of the body do not exceed 0.5 °C. Thermography is a useful and noninvasive method of assessing muscular tension disbalance in the course of scoliosis. In the case of scoliosis, the areas of the body with a significant thermal asymmetry of the surface are the upper back, thighs, and back of the lower legs. Due to the high positive correlation of the spinal rotation angle with the amount of thermal asymmetry, the areas that should be subjected to a detailed thermal assessment in the supplementary diagnosis of scoliosis using thermovision are the upper back, chest, thighs, and back of the lower legs.

PSIV-17 Muscular Tension as a Marker of Stress in Horses

Effects of social isolation, sham clipping, and novel object exposure on muscular and behavioral responses were investigated in horses. Humans increase muscular tension under psychologically or physically demanding situations and thus, similar conditions were expected to alter stress responses in horses. Eight mature Standardbreds (4 mares, 4 geldings) were exposed to 3 min of social isolation (ISO), sham clipping (CLIP), novel object (NOV), and control (CON) conditions in a replicated 4×4 Latin Square experimental design with 10 min washout periods. Surface electromyography (EMG) and stress-related behaviors were recorded continuously. Median frequency (MF) and average rectified value (ARV) of the EMG signal were calculated for the first, middle, and final 10 sec of each period. EMG data were log transformed prior to analysis with a mixed model, repeated measures ANOVA. Behavior data were analyzed using a negative binomial distribution mixed model ANOVA. Significantly different means were separated using Tukey’s method. More stress-related behaviors (P < 0.05) were observed during ISO (3.25 ± 0.26, LSM ± SE) than CON (1.46 ± 0.29) or CLIP (1.50 ± 0.36). ISO tended (P = 0.054) to produce more stress-related behaviors than NOV (2.31 ± 0.28). CLIP and ISO produced higher (P < 0.05) ARV than CON or NOV in the left and right masseter. CLIP elicited the highest (P < 0.05) MF in the left and right masseter with ISO resulting in lower (P < 0.05) MF than CON. ARV was higher (P < 0.05) in the left cervical trapezius during ISO as compared to all other conditions and in the right as compared to CON and CLIP. In the right cervical trapezius, ISO elicited higher (P < 0.05) MF than CON. Increased stress-related behaviors indicate a stress response was induced. Elevated muscular activity suggests muscular tension can be used in assessing stress.

The question of the use of trainer of MOTO - med is examined in the article in complex physical therapy

As one of technologies of restoration treatment of children with a cerebral palsy, that is sent to normalization of muscular tonus, decline of spasticity of muscular groups and neuromuscular or musculoskeletal disorders, improvements of blood supply and exchange processes in cerebral fabric, improvement of motive possibilities and walking. MOTO- med motor mechanotherapy has been developed for people with physical disabilities and complements physical therapy, ergotherapy and sports therapy. Users can exercise while wheelchair or chair. In the supine position, patients can use MOTO-med from the bed or from the treatment couch. To ensure safety during classes, MOTOmed devices have special software installed: motion protection" function stops the rotation of the simulator pedals. It doesn’t matter how the overall muscular tension changes, the level of "movement protection" does not always remain constant, but adapts to changes and therefore always remains optimally sensitive. This function is used on all MOTOmed models using sensitive sensors. "Spasm control" program with automatic change of direction of pedal rotation reduces muscle spasticity in accordance with the following therapeutic principle: flexor spasticity is reduced due to slow straightening, and extensor spasticity is due to limb flexion. During the operation of this program, the electric motor smoothly stops the rotation of the pedals. the muscles of the legs / arms relax, and after a short pause, a smooth change in the direction of rotation of the pedals occurs. This process is repeated until the cramping stops. Sessions of mechanotherapy on the trainer of MOTO - med help children with physical limitations to realize their natural necessity to motion.

Using the Bioelectric Signals to Control of Wearable Orthosis of the Elbow Joint with Bi-Muscular Pneumatic Servo-Drive

SUMMARYThis study presents a new design of a wearable orthosis of elbow joint with a bimuscular pneumatic servo-drive (PSD) with control based on the recording of bioelectric signals (BESs). The authors analyzed the impact of the induced brain activity and the muscular tension within the head of the participant on the BESs that can be used to control the PSD of the elbow joint orthosis. To control the elbow joint orthosis, a distributed control system (DCS) was developed, which contains two control layers: a master layer connected to the device for recording the BES and a direct layer contained in a wireless manner with the controller of the PSD. A kinematic-dynamic model of the elbow joint orthosis, patterned after the biological model of human biceps–triceps, was used in the programming of the PSD controller. A biomimetic dynamic model of the pneumatic muscle actuator (PMA) was used, in which the contraction force results from the adopted exponential static model of the pneumatic muscle (PM). The use of direct visual feedback (DVF) makes it possible for the participant to focus on the movement of the orthosis taking into account the motoric functions of the elbow.

Flèche versus Lunge as the Optimal Footwork Technique in Fencing

The objective of the study reported in this paper involved identifying the fencing attack (flèche versus lunge) that provides greater effectiveness in a real competition. Two hypotheses are presented in the study. The first hypothesis involves the greater effectiveness of the flèche with regard to bioelectric muscular tension, and the second hypothesis involves the reduction of movement time of the flèche. Therefore, analyses were conducted by the application of EMG (electromyography) signal, ground reaction forces, and parameters representing sensorimotor responses (RT—reaction time and MT—movement time). This study included six world-leading female épée fencers (mean age: 24.6 ± 6.2 years). Throughout the procedure, the subjects performed flèche and lunge touches at the command of the coach based on visual stimuli. The experimental results indicated the greater effectiveness of the flèche compared with the lunge with regard to increases in EMG values (p = 0.027) in the lateral and medial gastrocnemius muscles and decreases in the duration of the movement phase (p = 0.049) and vertical force of the rear leg (p = 0.028). In conclusion, higher levels of EMG and ground reaction forces were generated during the flèche compared with the lunge, which promotes an improvement in the explosive force and contributes to a reduction in the movement phase of the entire offensive action.