Características acústicas e do esfíncter velofaríngeo durante o som basal em fissurados

Abstract

This study aimed at describing the vocal acoustic characteristics and analyzing the velopharyngeal closing during vocal fry, comparing it with the emission in modal register of male adult patients with post-foramen cleft, surgically repaired. Material and Methods: It was carried out through Case Studies with four adult men, volunteers, with post-foramen cleft surgically repaired. The voice sample and the images of the velopharyngeal sphincter (VPS) were collected through nasopharyngoscopy, during the emission of the vowel /a/ in modal and vocal fry register. Then, the images of VPS in the two registers were assessed by otorhinolaryngology judges in terms of kind of closure and level of movement of structures involved in the closing. The voice of each participant, in vocal fry and modal register, were acoustically analyzed based on Multi Dimensional Voice Program (analysis of glottic source) and Real-Time Spectrogram (spectrographic analysis), both by Kay Elemetrics Corp., using speech-language pathologists as judges to assess the data from the spectrographs. Results: Through the spectrographic analysis of vocal fry we found: decrease of intensity, of definition and of band spectrography in some formants, decrease of the intensity of the entire spectrum, and a slight increase of noise in high frequencies and increase of the damping effect. According to the analysis of the glottic source, in the vocal fry, there were: fundamental frequency in the modal voice register and it was higher if compared to the emission in the modal register; a significant increase of the measures that show the variation of frequency and amplitude; a significant increase in most of the jitter and shimmer measures; increase in noise measure, voice break, unvoiced segment and vocal tremor; and soft phonation index (SPI) significantly decreased. Through the analysis of the images and the analysis of the VPS it was found that if compared to the modal register, the emission in fry kept the movement of the lateral pharyngeal walls, balanced the movement of the posterior pharyngeal wall, reduced slightly the movement of the velum palatinum, and emphasized the Passavant s ridge. Conclusions: Based on the findings of the acoustic analysis, it was showed the high instability and the noise in the fry emission, as well as its weak intensity and diminished transglottic air flow. Besides this, the analysis of the images and of VPS showed that the kind of velopharyngeal closure did not change among most of the participants if compared the modal register and the vocal fry, presenting changes in the level of movement of the structures involved.