A New Method to Record Subglottal Pressure Waves: Potential Applications

Rapid subglottal pressure changes related to the glottal cycles influence the aerodynamics of phonation. Various methods to measure these have been developed, but are not practical for routine phoniatric use. For that reason, a noninvasive measurement tool is necessary. This article presents a technique that uses a microphone positioned at the skin of the jugular fossa to record the signal which arises in the subglottal spaces and is transmitted through the soft tissue to the surface of the skin. Using the program Glottal Segmentation of Voice and Speech, jugular microphone recordings from two healthy subjects were compared with simultaneously recorded direct intratracheal measurements during the same phonation. A systematic error arising from the transmission properties of the microphone and the soft tissue leads to phase and amplitude deviations. These must be taken into account and require correction. This correction procedure leads to high correlations and a good agreement between the two signals. Even without this correction the jugular microphone measurements proved to be useful as a diagnostic and a therapeutic tool in cases where chest resonance specific processes appear affected. In addition, they offer material for research purposes. Although based on a small number of subjects, the new method shows a good validity; testing on a larger number of subjects will probably strengthen the validity.