A Comparative Study of Cepstral Measures in Participants With Vocal Fold Mass Lesions and Primary Muscle Tension Dysphonia Publisher Pubmed



S ; Aghadoost S ; Soleimani M ; Dabirmoghadam P ; Aghajanzadeh M
Source: Journal of Voice Published:2025

Abstract

Objectives: Although the use of cepstral measures for acoustic evaluation of voice has increased recently, few studies have specifically explored their potential to distinguish among different types of voice disorders. Accordingly, this study aimed to compare cepstral peak prominence (CPP) and smoothed cepstral peak prominence (CPPS) among participants with vocal fold mass lesions (VFMLs) and primary muscle tension dysphonia (pMTD). Study Design: This study is a cross-sectional analytical study. Methods: Sixty-eight patients with dysphonia (34 with VFMLs and 34 with pMTD) were recorded producing the sustained vowel /a/, reading a standard sentence, and producing nonstandard connected speech. The CPP and CPPS were extracted using the Praat software. Two-way ANCOVA was conducted for statistical comparisons, with gender as a fixed factor and age as a covariate. Results: The findings showed that there were significant differences between the two groups in all cepstral measures, including CPP and CPPS derived from sustained vowel, standard sentence, nonstandard connected speech, and the averaged values (p < 0.05). Higher CPP and CPPS values were consistently observed in individuals with pMTD compared to those with VFMLs. A significant gender effect was found for CPP, favoring male participants, while CPPS remained unaffected by gender. Among all tasks, standard sentence and non-standard connected speech revealed more significant differences between the groups, particularly for CPP. Area under the curve values ranged from 0.679 to 0.755 across tasks, indicating poor to fair discriminatory power. Conclusions: Cepstral measures differed between pMTD and VFMLs; however, their ability to accurately distinguish between these disorders was limited. © 2025 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.