Videostroboscopy is a high-speed
medical imaging method used to visualize the dynamics of human
vocal fold
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound product ...
vibration.
When stimulated by the pressure of breath exhaled from the lungs, the two vocal folds (also known as vocal cords) open and close rapidly. This process is called
phonation and produces the sound of the human voice.
During phonation, the vocal folds open and close too rapidly for the unassisted eye to observe their movement. This poses a problem to clinicians because abnormalities in these movements are often indicative of a voice disorder. Videostroboscopy is one method by which this problem is overcome.
The clinician uses an
endoscope
An endoscope is an inspection instrument composed of image sensor, optical lens, light source and mechanical device, which is used to look deep into the body by way of openings such as the mouth or anus. A typical endoscope applies several modern t ...
containing an embedded video camera and
stroboscope
A stroboscope, also known as a strobe, is an instrument used to make a cyclically moving object appear to be slow-moving, or stationary. It consists of either a rotating disk with slots or holes or a lamp such as a flashtube which produces br ...
, which is passed through the nasal passage and into the
pharynx
The pharynx (plural: pharynges) is the part of the throat behind the mouth and nasal cavity, and above the oesophagus and trachea (the tubes going down to the stomach and the lungs). It is found in vertebrates and invertebrates, though its st ...
of the subject, who then initiates phonation and vocalizes while the vocal folds are recorded. In the resulting stroboscopic video recording, the vocal folds appear slow enough to observe the precise nature of the movement, enabling the diagnosis of a range of problems.
[Powell ME, Deliyski DD, Hillman RE, Zeitels SM, Burns JA, Mehta DD. Comparison of Videostroboscopy to Stroboscopy Derived From High-Speed Videoendoscopy for Evaluating Patients With Vocal Fold Mass Lesions. Am J Speech Lang Pathol. 2016 Nov 01;25(4):576-589.]
See also
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Videokymography
Videokymography is a high-speed medical imaging method to visualize the human vocal fold vibration dynamics. It was invented by Jan G. Švec under the guidance of Harm K. Schutte.
A digital technique for high-speed visualization of vibration, cal ...
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Human voice
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Voice disorders Voice disordersTitze, I.R. (1994). Principles of Voice Production, Prentice Hall, . are medical conditions involving abnormal pitch, loudness or quality of the sound produced by the larynx and thereby affecting speech production. These include:
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References
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Medical imaging
Human voice
Voice disorders