Could neuromuscular electrical stimulation really lead to changes in voice of swallowing disorder caused by a stroke?

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) on the loudness, pitch and quality of the voice of the males diagnosed with dysphagia by stroke. NMES was conducted on experimental group of 15 patients for 2 months repeatedly while compensatory strategies for dysphagia were performed on control group of 15 patients. Loudness, pitch (F₀) and quality (Jitter, Shimmer, NNE; Normalized Noise Energy) of the voice was measured by using acoustic-phonetic analysis. For statistical test, difference in voice change after the treatments was compared by using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). As the result of analysis, NMES and compensatory strategies had significant difference in intensity, jitter and shimmer (p