An integrated tool for the diagnosis of voice disorders

Abstract 

A PC-based integrated aid tool has been developed for the analysis and screening of pathological voices. With it the user can simultaneously record speech, electroglottographic (EGG), and videoendoscopic signals, and synchronously edit them to select the most significant segments. These multimedia data are stored on a relational database, together with a patient's personal information, anamnesis, diagnosis, visits, explorations and any other comment the specialist may wish to include.

The speech and EGG waveforms are analysed by means of temporal representations and the quantitative measurements of parameters such as spectrograms, frequency and amplitude perturbation measurements, harmonic energy, noise, etc. are calculated using digital signal processing techniques, giving an idea of the degree of hoarseness and quality of the voice register.

Within this framework, the system uses a standard protocol to evaluate and build complete databases of voice disorders.

The target users of this system are speech and language therapists and ear nose and throat (ENT) clinicians. The application can be easily configured to cover the needs of both groups of professionals.

The software has a user-friendly Windows style interface. The PC should be equipped with standard sound and video capture cards. Signals are captured using common transducers: a microphone, an electroglottograph and a fiberscope or telelaryngoscope.

The clinical usefulness of the system is addressed in a comprehensive evaluation section.

Keywords: Speech disorder database, Diagnostic aid system, Voice and endoscopic image database, Assessment protocol