Original Research
Spastic Dysphonia: A case report
South African Journal of Communication Disorders | Vol 27, No 1 | a360 |
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajcd.v27i1.360
| © 1980 Lesley Wolk
| This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 14 November 1980 | Published: 14 November 1980
Submitted: 14 November 1980 | Published: 14 November 1980
About the author(s)
Lesley Wolk, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, University of the Witwatersrand, South AfricaFull Text:
PDF (292KB)Abstract
An in-depth investigation of a 55-year-old woman with spastic dysphonia was performed. The findings from otological, neurological and psychological investigations assisted in making a differential diagnosis and served to provide evidence for the etiology of this disorder. Subjective-perceptual evaluations of the voice revealed a strained, harsh-breathy voice quality with frequent breaks in phonation, a variable pitch and visible tension in the face and neck muscles. Objective spectrographic evaluations revealed much turbulence, ill-defined harmonics, a breakdown in formant structure, rapid pitch fluctuations and evidence of diplophonia, which was confirmed on a fiberscopic examination. Post-treatment spectrographic evaluations indicated an improved phonatory ability with significant improvement in the above parameters. Results are discussed in terms of the etiology and symptomatology of this disorder; and clinical implications for diagnosis and treatment are considered.
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