Laryngeal Electromyography and Acoustic Voice Analysis in Parkinson's Disease: a comparative study

Parkinson's disease (PD) involves a progressive depletion of dopamine in the basal ganglia leading to motor alterations. Oral communication impairment occurs in 75% to 90% of patients and has been poorly studied. AIM: to asses laryngeal electromyography (LEMG) patterns and correlate them to vocal analysis in patients with Parkinson's disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a prospective study. Twenty six adults with PD underwent laryngeal electromyography. Rest and phonation potentials were analyzed. VOXMETRIA® and GRAM 5.1.6. ® were used in acoustic analysis. RESULTS: The main electromyographic pattern observed in the PD group was rest hypertonicity meaning that patients with PD presented with spontaneous intrinsic laryngeal muscle activity during voice rest, which occurred in 73% of the individuals. Not a case of laryngeal tremor was detected by electromyography, although vocal tremor was detected by VOXMETRIA in 69.5% of the individuals and in 61% of them by perceptive-auditive analysis. CONCLUSION: Vocal tremor was the main acoustic change in the PD group, with no correlation to LEMG findings.