Phonatory stop

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Hearing a Phonatory Stop

An individual goes to sing a note and only air comes out.

Case study

History

Emanuelle suddenly lost her voice 3 months ago for several days. Since that time her voice has remained hoarse and effortful to use. In her early 30s, she stays at home raising her children. Her voice gets worse with use. She is moderately talkative and rates herself a 5 on a 7-point talkativeness scale, although with her children she tends to use her voice all day.

Vocal Capabilities

Her voice cuts out and jumps around when she is speaking. On maximum phonation time testing, she can reach 24 seconds, but by 15 seconds in her voice is cutting out. When she sings at C4# softly, her voice begins, but then cuts out. She cannot go to a higher note softly although she can reach a few higher notes loudly. She also very briefly has a short segment phonation at C4 jumping to C5.

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Laryngoscopy

She has large central vocal cord swellings. At pitch F4 they are tending to touch throughout most of the vibratory cycle