Clinical Analysis Methods of Voice Disorders

Purpose: The purpose of this review is to provide a summary of the uses and limitations of techniques used in clinical voice assessment at leading clinics based on journal publications within the last years. Voice assessment techniques of acoustic analysis, perceptual analysis, vocal fold vibration and of aerodynamic measurements are presented regarding the information they provide and their limitations. Conclusion: Various assessment approaches are conducted to evaluate voice quality and to classify the underlying voice disorder. Recordings of the acoustics and dynamics of the vocal folds describe the disease but do not give any information on the laryngeal interrelations. Vocal functioning including the dependencies between laryngeal structures, acoustics and airflow remains unclear. Investigations of these dependencies require in vitro experiments, synthetic models and numerical analysis to describe exactly all parameters of phonation.