Acoustic characteristics of voice in patients with chronic kidney disease

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the multifactorial effects of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and hemodialysis (HD) on subjects’ voices by examining correlations between laboratory investigations, respiratory function, and acoustic voice parameters. Methods: This case–control study was conducted on 60 participants aged 18−50 years, divided equally into three groups: controls (no health problems or voice disorders), cCKD (stage 3–5, no HD HD]), HD, and CKD stage 5. The study took 21 months. All participants underwent general and otolaryngological examinations, followed by laboratory investigations (hemoglobin, uric acid, HCO3, estimated glomerular filtration rate, urea, urea-reduction ratio, and creatinine), respiratory function tests, and acoustic voice analysis. Results: There were significant differences between the control and HD groups for jitter, shimmer, and harmonic:noise (HNR) ratio (P=0 and between the control and CKD groups for shimmer and HNR (P=0), with no significant difference between HD and CKD. There were statistically significant correlations between duration of HD and HNR, jitter percentage, and shimmer percentage (P=0. Conclusion: Systemic effects of CKD and HD were found to impair the acoustic characteristics of voice in both groups. Regression analysis revealed that hemoglobin, uric acid, and expiratory time were the most significant predictors of impaired acoustic characteristics.