New study on assessing treatment responses in laryngeal dystonia published

Jürgen Konczak, Director HSCL, published with colleagues in otolaryngology in the specialty journal Laryngoscope on acoustic markers associated with the voice disorder laryngeal dystonia. This form of focal dystonia is a chronic voice disorder without a cure and regular injections of Botulinum toxin is the major available treatment. However, treatment responses vary widely between affected people and may change over time in a patient. Unfortunately, standard voice assessment is labor-intensive and prone to error, thus, complicating treatment decisions. This study examined whether several acoustic markers of voice can be good candidates to determine changes in voice quality due to Botulinum toxin treatment. The study found that these markers correlate with certain speech symptoms, but are not meaningful predictors of a treatment response. The lead author of the study is Dr. Jesse Hoffmeister from the UM Department of Otolaryngology.