The potential role of ultrasound in differentiating solid and cystic swellings of the true vocal fold

This study was designed to investigate the potential role of ultrasound in the diagnosis of cysts of the true vocal fold. Materials and Methods: Grayscale ultrasound of the larynx was carried out in 29 patients with a swelling of the true vocal fold and dysphonia. The findings were then compared with those at subsequent microlaryngoscopy, in the majority of cases. Results and Conclusions: Whereas preoperative laryngeal ultrasound correctly predicted the surgical findings of a cystic lesion in only 5 of 11 cases, it correctly identified that no cyst was present in 15 of 16 instances when this had been queried. This study suggests that ultrasound may have some role in investigation of unilateral vocal fold pathology, but that further fine-tuning of the technique may be necessary.     

The use of vibrational spectroscopy to study the pathogenesis multiple sclerosis and other neurological conditions

Spectroscopy techniques are valuable tools in biomedical research and have been used extensively in the study of disease. However, neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis (MS) have received little attention and the available spectroscopy studies are limited, both in overall numbers of patients studied and the disease samples considered. MS is a complex immune-mediated disease, with variable clinical courses and limited therapeutic options. This review aims to summarize current literature in the area, demonstrating how spectroscopy techniques can provide valuable information to inform and advance research into the most common neurological condition affecting young adults.     

Ill-defined block-spin transformations at arbitrarily high temperatures

Examples are presented of block-spin transformations which map the Gibbs measures of the Ising model in two or more dimensions at temperature intervals extending to arbitrarily high temperatures onto non-Gibbsian measures. In this way we provide the first example of this kind of pathology for very high temperatures, and as a corollary also the first example of such a pathology happening at a critical point.     

Panel The integration of voice science, voice pathology, medicine, public speaking, acting, and singing

The integration of voice science, voice pathology, medicine, public speaking, acting, and singing has been central to evolution in all fields. The Voice Foundation Symposia have played a seminal and central role in fostering integration among disciplines. The result has been an improvement in the knowledge and practice in each field. And the future promises to be even more informative and exciting.     

“Compensatory falsetto”: Effects on vocal quality

The term “compensatory falsetto”, for the purpose of this investigation, refers to the development of an abnormally high-pitched voice in the presence of laryngeal pathology where more socially acceptable lower pitched voice production is possible. The purpose of this investigation was to compare laryngeal compensations and their effects on objective measures of vocal function during production of compensatory falsetto voice. Eighteen patients with abnormally high-pitched voice in the presence of underlying laryngeal pathology were evaluated in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Miami School of Medicine from January 1988 through December 1992 and were diagnosed with “compensatory falsetto”. Vocal fold paralysis (n = 11) was the most common laryngeal pathology. Vibratory characteristics were evaluated through videostrobolaryngoscopic examination. Acoustic and aerodynamic parameters assessed included fundamental frequency, jitter rate, harmonic-to-noise ratio, glottal air flow, and maximum phonation time. Production of a higher-pitched voice appeared to improve glottic closure and decrease the amount of air loss during phonation. A corresponding increase in maximum phonation time and improvement in acoustic characteristics of jitter and harmonic-to-noise ratio was also observed.     

Presentation of problem: Performance of jitter in discriminating between normal and dysphonic speakers

The data we deal with are acoustic feature values computed from speech signals produced by normal control speakers and speakers suffering from a laryngeal pathology. The problem is (i) to compare the discriminatory performance of a given acoustic feature with other features of the same family; (ii) to compare the performance of corresponding features in studies carried out on corpora which were not identical and which did not contain the same number of speakers; (iii) to express quantitatively the share of laryngeal pathologies which could be detected reliably by acoustic means alone. We propose to accomplish tasks (i) to (iii) by separating pooled control and risk groups on the basis of the acoustic feature values alone and by evaluating the quality of approximation of the original groups so realized. In order to evaluate this quality we compute a merit factor satisfying the following properties: (1) to be independent of the number of speakers contained in the pooled control and risk groups; (2) to increase and decrease linearly with the detection and false alarm rates, respectively; (3) to take on values between 0 (no discrimination at all) and 1 (perfect discrimination). We also address the question of the confidence one may have in the merit factor values so achieved, i.e. we describe a method of computing the probability that a merit factor value might have been realized by chance alone.     

快速制取人体组织病理切片的超声波法

本文介绍了用超声波方法快速制妈人体组织病理切片的基本原理，实验步骤和试验结果。结果表明，用超声波处理后快速制取的病理切片完全怀可常规石蜡切片相媲美，在临床外检快速病理诊断应用上，超声处理仪有可能取代价格昂贵的恒温式冷冻切片机。