The speech range profile (SRP): an easy and useful tool to assess vocal limits

This study was carried out to compare the vocal limits obtained by speech range profile (SRP) with those of voice range profile (VRP) in untrained healthy and dysphonic females. Forty-six healthy voice volunteers (control group) and 148 dysphonic patients (dysphonic group) were evaluated using videolaryngostroboscopic assessment and phonetography for voice measurements. For VRP, subjects were asked to sustain the vowel /a/ as soft and as loud possible from the lowest to the highest frequencies using an automated procedure. The SRP was obtained by recording the speaking voice (SV) and the shouting voice (ShV) asking subjects to read a list of sentences aloud and to shout / ehi/ as loud as they could, respectively. All subjects in the control and dysphonic groups were able to perform SRP. fourty of 46 (85%) and 102 of 148 (68.91%) cases, respectively in control and dysphonic groups, were able to perform VRP. Most frequently, the VRP was not recorded because of the inability to perform or, especially in the dysphonic group, for inadequacy of the vocal signal. In the control group, there were no significant differences between the mean values of Fmin, Fmax, Imin and number of semitones (st) of the VRP and those of the SRP (p > 0.05). In the dysphonic group, the mean values of Fmin, Fmax and st SV+ShV for SRP were significantly higher than those of VRP. Our preliminary results suggest that the SRP may be a useful, alternative tool to assess vocal limits in both euphonic and dysphonic females.