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Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Asthma--Treatment; Asthmatics; Voice--Physiological aspects;

Abstract

Asthma is an inflammatory disease of the lungs and upper respiratory tree. As such, it has been shown to interfere with respiration resulting in lower vital capacities, prolonged inspirations, short expirations, coughing, wheezing and multitude of other symptoms. Speech and voice symptoms have been described including short phrases, reduced loudness, hoarseness, and low pitch. Medical treatments for asthma include a variety of anti inflammatory agents as well as bronchodiolators. By far, most anti inflammatory agents used today include inhaled corticosteroid medications. While oral corticosteroid management of asthma produced symptom relief, the adverse side effects ranging from mood changes, voice change, and severe systemic problems to death has encouraged the use of the inhaled corticosteroid agents. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the effects of inhaled corticosteroids and inhaled noncorticosteroid medications on voice in asthmatics while they are not suffering from an asthmatic attack. Three groups of 10 subjects each were formed: (a) inhaled noncorticosteroid group, (b) combined inhaled noncorticosteroid, corticosteroid group, and (d) an age/sex matched control group. The two experimental groups were matched for asthma severity as well as age and sex. The experimental task consisted of prolonging "ah'' as long as possible, reading a standard passage, and describing a picture. The dependent variables included: {a) jitter, (b) shimmer, (c) maximum phonation time (MPT), and {d) perceptual ratings of overall voice quality. Jitter, shimmer, and overall voice quality were not found to differ significantly across groups. Both experimental groups were found to have significantly shorter MPTs than the normal controls but they did not differ from each other. This agrees with previous research reporting shorter expiration time for asthmatics. From these data, the effect medication type does not appear to differentially affect voice. This suggests that physicians can prescribe inhaled corticosteroid medication without undue concern for vocal effects. The short MPTs and other respiratory symptoms of asthma (short expirations, coughing, throat clearing, etc.) suggest that asthmatics who use their voice extensively, should protect the vocal mechanism with good vocal hygiene and adequate hydration.

Year of Submission

1994

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Communicative Disorders

First Advisor

Carlin F. Hageman

Second Advisor

Theresa A. Kouri

Third Advisor

Linda Walsh

Comments

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Date Original

1994

Object Description

1 PDF file (71 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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