Voice Tremor in Parkinsonism : A Preliminary Study for Differential Diagnosis

파킨슨증의 음성진전 : 감별진단을 위한 예비연구

Tremor is a main factor of parkinsonism. Voice tremor may be the first, later or the only symptom of a neurological disease and its frequency, amplitude, and regularity may differ among the diseases of different neural subsystems. Differential diagnosis between idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA) has been difficult. This study included three groups: (1) 6 IPD patients; (2) 6 MSA patients; and (3) 20 ageand sex-matched normal controls. The MDVP (Multidimensional Voice Program) was used to analyze the sustained /a/phonation. The results were as follows: (1) frequency perturbation parameters (jitter, sPPQ, Vf0) and FTRI of tremor parameter of two patient groups were statistically different from those of the controls (p < .01); (2) measures were higher in short-term and long-term f0 and amplitude perturbation in MSA than IPD; (3) however, any acoustic parameters between IPD and MSA were not statistically different; except for the rate of frequency tremor, 4$\sim$5 Hz in IPD, 5$\sim$11 Hz in MSA and (4) the pattern of regularity for voice tremor through histogram indicated that amplitude of IPD was irregular while both f0 and amplitude of MSA were irregular. In conclusion, F0, rate of frequency tremor, and pattern of f0 regularity may be predictors for differential diagnosis. These findings might signify that voice tremor of parkinsonism was resulted from modulation of f0.