• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.25-29
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• 2016

Background and Objectives : The clinical reports for the treatment of vocal fold scar and sulcus vocalis are limited, also there is no best one for the treatment of them. This study is to evaluate the effect of Injection laryngoplasty (IL) for the treatment of vocal fold scar and sulcus vocalis. Materials and Methods : from January 2013 to May 2015, the Nineteen patients who were diagnosed as vocal fold scar, sulcus and atrophy, and underwent IL, were engaged in this study. Clinical information and voice parameters were analyzed by retrospective chart review. Pre and post voice parameters were compared. Results : Subgroups of diagnosis were classified into sulcus vocalis for 12 patients, vocal fold scar for 5, and atrophy for 2. IL was performed under local anesthesia through cricothyroid membrane except one patient. Atesense$^{(R)}$, Radiessess$^{(R)}$, and Rofilan$^{(R)}$ were used as injected materials in 9, 9, and 1 patients respectively. Maximal phonation time (p=0.0124), dynamic range (p=0.0028), pitch range (p=0.0141), voice handicap index (p=0.028), glottal closure (p=0.0229), and mucosal wave (p=0.0132) had significant improvement for post-IL voice assessment than Pre-IL. While GRBAS, Mean flow rate, Jitter, Shimmer, Harmony to Noise ratio didn't have improvement. Conclusion : IL is a feasible option for the treatment of glottis incompetence with normally mobile vocal folds such as sulcus vocalis and vocal fold scar.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.32-36
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• 2010

Background : Vocal fold injection using autologous material (fat or collagen) is very useful. However, Autologous material have variable resorption times and results, Plasma gel is a new injection material. The purpose of this study is to introduce a new injection material and discuss the effectiveness and complications. Subjects and Method: Eleven cases with vocal cord paralysis were analyzed after plasma gel injection, The plasma gel was acquired from patient's own blood. The preoperative and postoperative parameters including maximum phonation time (MPT) and subject aspiration score were analyzed. Results: There was a significant improvement in MPT and aspiration score in the case of vocal cord palsy. There was only one laryngeal complication. Conclusion : According to these preliminary results, the injection laryngoplasty with Plasma gel is a simple, safe, cheap procedure for temporally vocal fold palsy.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.133-149
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• 2006

This study attempted to compare acoustic parameters, physiological observation and perceptual evaluation values obtained from the treatment and control groups in order to find out which of the self voice feedback therapies was better and which methods to train them were more effective. The experimental group carried out various self voice feedback therapies while the control group did only vocal hygiene. The acoustic measurement and voice manipulation for providing the patients visual, auditory feedback were done by a speech analysis software, Praat. The authors designed vocal hygiene, abdominal respiration and Praat self voice feedback therapies and applied them to 15 patients while applying only one vocal hygiene to 15 of the control group. For the purpose of examining the degree of their voice improvement after the treatment, pre- mid- and final evaluations were made for the two groups at the beginning, the 6th week and immediately after the 8th treatment session. Results of this study were as follows: The treatment group showed much improvement after receiving the voice treatment. In particular, acoustical and physiological indices from the optical endoscopy, pitch variation(Jitter), amplitude variation (Shimmer), maximum phonation time(MPT), and psychoacoustic evaluation showed statistically significant improvements over the control groups.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.1171-1179
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• 2013

Interactive audio service provide with audio generating and editing functionality according to user's preference. A spatial audio object coding (SAOC) scheme is audio coding technology that can support the interactive audio service with relatively low bit-rate. However, when the SAOC scheme remove the specific one object such as vocal object signal for Karaoke mode, the scheme support poor quality because the removed vocal object remain in the SAOC-decoded background music. Thus, we propose a new SAOC vocal harmonic extranction and elimination technique to improve the background music quality in the Karaoke service. Namely, utilizing the harmonic information of the vocal object, we removed the harmonics of the vocal object remaining in the background music. As harmonic parameters, we utilize the pitch, MVF(maximum voiced frequency), and harmonic amplitude. To evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme, we perform the objective and subjective evaluation. As our experimental results, we can confirm that the background music quality is improved by the proposed scheme comparing with the SAOC scheme.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Laryngology, Phoniatrics and Logopedics
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.66-70
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• 1998

Background and Objectives : The managements of unilateral vocal cord palsy include type Ⅰ thyroplasty and arytenoid adduction. One type operation has been shown no satisfactory effect. We evaluated preoperative and postoperative speech of unilateral vocal cord palsy patients who received combined operation of type Ⅰ thyroplasty and arytenoid adduction to help for the management plan of unilateral vocal cord palsy patients. Materials and Methods : We reviewed the postoperative results and complication of 17 surgically treated patients of unilateral vocal cord palsy at Severance hospital from Nov. 1996 to Dec. 1997 retrospectively. They were received combined operation of type Ⅰ thyroplasty and arytenoid adduction. Their pre and post-operative speech were analyzed with MDVP(Multi-Dimension-Voice analysis Program) of CSL(Computerized Speech Lab). Results : After the operation, MPT(Maximal Phonation Time) was increased and MFR(Mean Flow Rate) was decreased in all patients. NHR(Noise to Harmonic Ratio) and VTI(Voice Turbulence Index) were decreased : liner, RAP(Relative Average Perturbation Quotient), PPQ(Pitch Period Perturbation Quotient), sPPQ(smoothed Pitch Period Perturbation Quotient), vFo(fundamental frequency Variation) were decreased : Shimmer, APQ(Amplitude Perturbation Quotient), sAPQ(Smoothed Amplitude Perturbation Qoutient), vAm(Peak Amplitude Variation) were decreased in all the patients. Conclusions : In unilateral vocal cord pals), combined operation of type Ⅰ thyroplasty and arytenoid adduction could obtain satisfactory postoperative voice. MDVP has many parameters and good method for evaluation of voice surgery.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.91-98
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• 2012

The purposes of this paper is to study the characteristics of compared to the speakers voice without depression and speakers with depression, and to propose a objective method for the measurement of the therapeutic effects as well as for diagnostics of depression based on the characteristics. The voice samples obtained from 11 female speakers with depression, aged from 20 to 40, diagnosed as having major depressive disorder by an psychiatrist were compared with those from 12 normal controls with matched sex, age, height, weight, education, smoking, and drinking. The voice samples are taken by a portable digital recorder(TASCAM DR-07, Japan) and analysed using the MDVP(Multi-Dimentional Voice Program) software module from CSL(Computerized Speech Lab, kay elemetrics, co, model 4100). The result of the investigation are as following. First, the average speaking fundamental frequency and loudness range of the speakers with depression group was statistically significantly lower than that of the control group. The pitch range of the control group was rather higher than that of the speakers with depression group, but without statistical significance. Overall speech rates have no statistical difference between two groups. Second, the average speaking fundamental frequency and loudness range have statistically significant negative correlation with Beck Depression Inventory, i. e. more severe depression exhibits lower average speaking fundamental frequency and loudness range. Other vocal parameters such as pitch range and overall speech rate have no statistically meaningful correlations with Beck Depression Inventory.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.343-349
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• 2004

Electroglottograph(EGG) is a signal recorded from the vocal cord vibration by measuring electrical impedance across the vocal folds through the neck skin. The purpose of this study was to develop EGG system and to evaluate possibility for the application on speech analysis and laryngeal disease diagnosis. EGG system was composed of two pairs of ring electrodes, tuned amplifier, phase sensitive detector, low pass filter, and auto-gain controller. It was designed to extract electric impedance after detecting by amplitude modulation method with 2.7MHz carrier signal. Extracted signals were transmitted through line-in of PC sound card, sampled and quantized. Closed Quotient(CQ), Speed Quotient(SQ), Speed Index(SI), fundamental frequency of vocal cord vibration(F0), pitch variability of vocal fold vibration (Jitter), and peak-to-peak amplitude variability of vocal fold vibration(Shimmer) were analyzed as EGG parameters. Experimental results were as follows: the faster vocal fold vibration, the higher values in CQ parameter and the lower values in SQ and SI parameters. EGG and speech signals had the same fundamental frequency. CQ, SQ, and SI were significantly different between normal subjects and patients with laryngeal cancer. These results suggest that it is possible to implement portable EGG system to monitor the function of vocal cord and to test functional changes of the glottis.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.2507-2511
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• 2016

Purpose: To study the diagnostic accuracies of serum human epididymis protein 4 (HE-4) levels, virtual organ computer-aided analysis (VOCAL) parameters and endometrial volume in endometrial cancer cases. Materials and Methods: One hundred and seven patients (37 with endometrial cancer and 70 with benign endometrial pathology) were included in this study. VOCAL parameters and serum HE-4 levels were compared between the groups. Results: Area under the curve (AUC) values were 0.702, 0.658, 0.706 for vascularization index (VI), the flow index (FI) and the vascularization flow index (VFI), respectively. A cut off value of 0.568 for VI demonstrated 70% sensitivity, 72% specificity, 56% positive predictive value (PPV) and a81% negative predictive value (NPV). A cut off value of 25.8 for showed a senitivith of 70% and a specificity of 58% with aPPV of 46% and NPV of 78%, and with a cut off value of 0.12 for VFI 70%, 69%, 54% and 81%, respectively. The area under the curve for HE-4 was 0.814. A cut off value of 458 pmol/L was predictive of malignancy with 86% sensitivity and 63% specificity. Conclusions: VOCAL parameters and serum HE-4 levels were statistically significantly higher in the endometrial cancer patients. Serum HE-4 levels provided a greater sensitivity compared to power doppler angiography for predicting malignancy or benign endometrial pathology.

• Speech Sciences
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.201-219
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• 2003

Background: The perceptual assessment is generally performed by the voice specialist. The objective evaluation is performed in a voice laboratory. Research in voice laboratories has generated a variety of different objective tests and parameters. The perceptual evaluation is one of the most controversial topics in voice research. Review of literature reveals a wide variety of rating scales and reliability data fluctuating from study to study. Unfortunately, there is no widely accepted valid method for classifying voice disorders and assessing outcome after voice treatment. Objectives: The goals of this research were to identify important objective acoustic parameters of vocal quality, and to establish an objective and quantitative correlate of the perceived vocal quality. Materials and Methods : We evaluated the voice analyzed data from 122 dysphonic patients and 20 normal volunteers. A computerized speech lab. 4300B(CSL) was used to carry out the analysis of each voice sample. Results: Three dysphonia severity indices(DSI) were created using discriminant analysis. DSI is based on the weighted combination of the following selected set of acoustic parameters: absolute jitter(Jita in us), smoothed pitch period perturbation (sPPQ in %), amplitude perturbation quotient(APQ in %), soft phonation index(SPI), average fundamental frequency(Fo in Hz), lowest fundamental frequency(Flo in Hz), and smoothed amplitude perturbation quotient(sAPQ in %). The DSI, being the discriminating rule calculated by the logistic regression, consists of three equation based on statistically significant acoustic parameters. Three DSI were created to reflects best the degree of hoarseness as expressed by G from the GRBAS scale. The more positive this DSI is for a patient, the worse the vocal quality. The more it is negative, the better it is. The effect of sex is included implicitly in the DSI-1 and DSI-2, so that a separate DSI-1 and DSI-2 for males and females need not be used. The DSI is objective because no perceptual input is required for its calculation. Conculsion : This research demonstrates that the voice function values calculated from three different multivariate objective dysphonia severity indices are significantly associated with subjective voice assessments. These multivariate objective dysphonia severity indices may be appropriate for use in clinical trials and outcomes research on treatment effectiveness for voice disorders.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.681-686
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• 2012

This paper studied the speech parameters less affected by the human emotion for the development of the robust emotional speech recognition system. For this purpose, the effect of emotion on the speech recognition system and robust speech parameters of speech recognition system were studied using speech database containing various emotions. In this study, mel-cepstral coefficient, delta-cepstral coefficient, RASTA mel-cepstral coefficient, root-cepstral coefficient, PLP coefficient and frequency warped mel-cepstral coefficient in the vocal tract length normalization method were used as feature parameters. And CMS (Cepstral Mean Subtraction) and SBR(Signal Bias Removal) method were used as a signal bias removal technique. Experimental results showed that the HMM based speaker independent word recognizer using frequency warped RASTA mel-cepstral coefficient in the vocal tract length normalized method, its derivatives and CMS as a signal bias removal showed the best performance.