The Relationship between Nasalance Score and Benign Vocal Fold Lesions

Ahn, Cheol Min; Choi, Young Hwa; Lee, Seong Hoon

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Voice therapy using nasal stimulus sounds seems to facilitate a more easily produced, often better-sounding voice in benign vocal fold lesions. This study was designed (1) to determine whether nasalance score was different in patients with or without vocal fold masses, (2) to test if nasalance score was different from each disease group, and (3) to determine the difference between the normal and the disease group according to the reading materials.
SUBJECTS AND METHOD
One hundred and sixty-eight subjects were evaluated. Each subject received a complete otolaryngological evaluation including physical examination, videostrobolaryngoscopy, objective voice measures, and evaluation by a speech-language pathologist. The control group consisted of 48 subjects with no nasal and vocal fold pathology. Subjects were evaluated on a nasometric assessment with three passages of oral-nasal sound.
RESULTS
All disease groups demonstrated lower nasalance scores than the control group.
CONCLUSION
There are significant differences in the nasalance scores between each disease group and the control group. Differences were also found according to the reading materials.