Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the therapeutic effects of a combination of proton pump inhibitor (PPI) administration and vocal training on vocal abnormalities in laryngopharyngeal reflux disease (LPRD) subjects with both vocal cord inflammation and muscle tension dysphonia. Thirteen LPRD subjects (male 8, female 5) were enrolled and administrated rabeprazole (20mg) once a day. We conducted vocal training using humming on each subject every 4 weeks. We evaluated the degrees of vocal cord inflammation and supraglottic compression and vocal qualities during natural sustained vowel phonation and humming phonation at the first and final visits. In the first visit, all the subjects showed vocal abnormalities with more than 1 in the G score during natural vowel phonation. In the humming phonation, only 4 subjects showed less than 1 in the G score. In the final visit, only 8 and 4 subjects showed more than 1 in the G score and accomplished G0 in sustained vowel phonation, respectively. However, in the humming phonation, 12 subjects accomplished G0. These data indicate that while PPI administration improved the vocal cord inflammation, more than half of the subjects had muscle tension dysphonia even after the therapies. In addition, the humming method seems useful for estimation of `mixed voice disorders' due to both organic and functional factors.
