Acoustic Voice Analysis for Identifying Neurogenic Dysphagia in Stroke Patients
Simone Timi, Maria Luisa Garo, Federica Lucia Galli
Post-stroke dysphagia impacts patients’ quality of life and care costs in health services due to related complications. Clinical assessment of swallowing might benefit from reliable, low-cost and well-tolerated tools, particularly in facilities where instrumental assessments are not easily available. This study aims to investigate whether objective parameters of acoustic voice analysis can facilitate neurogenic dysphagia identification in an Italian population of stroke patients. Post-swallowing voice changes, observed during clinical assessment in stroke patients, are often an indicator of dysphagia risk. These voice changes can be assessed using low-cost and non-invasive acoustic analysis software. To test this hypothesis, a study was conducted on a group of stroke patients with dysphagia, a group of stroke patients without dysphagia, and a control group of healthy subjects. The preliminary results of the statistical analysis provide evidence that supports the validity of using acoustic voice analysis as a clinical tool for identifying dysphagia in stroke patients.
Keywords
Dysphagia, Voice, Stroke, Acoustic voice analysis.
