[Voice change and acoustic character of essential voice tremor].

OBJECTIVE

To discuss the voice change and acoustic character of essential voice tremor.

METHOD

Observations and acoustic studies were performed about clinical manifestations and voice of 18 patients with essential voice tremor.

RESULT

In 18 patients with essential voice tremor, female accounts for 72% (13/18 cases). The mean age at tremor onset was 57 years old . And 8900 of them had no neurologic abnormalities. The clinical manifestation includes voice tremor, dysphonia, even frequent voice interruption. The laryngeal body happens to regular tremor in automatically. Bilateral vocal cords, ventricular cords and arytenoid cartilages also tremble regularly open and closed, together with the tremor of voice-producing organs(soft palate, tongue and lateral pharyngeal wall). The frequency of voice tremor is 4-6 Hz. The acoustic analysis characteristics of voice is the obvious increasing of Shimmer, presenting the specific change of the parameters such as soft phonation index (SPI), degree of voiceless (DUV), degree of voice breaks (DVB), FO tremor intensity index (FTRI) and Amplitude Tremor Intensity Index (ATRI).

CONCLUSION

The voice change of essential voice tremor is a kind of regular tremor with low frequency. For the severe patients, it shows dysphonia and frequent voice interruption.