LARYNX

Age-Related Laryngeal Voice Dysphonia

Introduction: Human voice production occurs due to oscillation of the vocal cord from a phenomenon called flow-induced oscillation. Negative pressure associated with Bernoulli forces causes the vocal cord to move completely to the midline, which creates a closed laryngeal airspace below the glottis. At the same time, air pressure generated from the lung makes the vocal cords oscillate, thus opening the glottis and releasing a single ‘puff’ of air. As humans age, age-related vocal cord atrophy (VCA) causes a breathy and weak voice with decreased loudness due to increased glottal air leakage. VCA is the most prevalent age-related voice disorder among individuals ≥65 years. Voice therapy (VT) is the mainstay of treatment for VCA, but outcomes after VT are highly variable. When symptoms persist after VT, vocal cord augmentation by injection laryngoplasty (IL) to improve glottic closure may be recommended. Current evidence suggests that not all patients will benefit from IL; criteria to discern who will and will not benefit are not well established.

Project Goal: Our research goal in VCA is to use computational modeling to develop a reliable and efficient prognostic approach based on patient-specific laryngeal airway model to quantify the severity of each patient’s underlying VCA condition and to suggest treatment options (VT, IL, both, none) that may optimize voice quality.