key: cord-0860006-q1j3vpoj
authors: Chirila, Magdalena
title: Voice and the new coronavirus
date: 2020-08-09
journal: Int J Clin Pract
DOI: 10.1111/ijcp.13670
sha: ad75a2a6fde460e64c41fdb34307895f51fbdd6c
doc_id: 860006
cord_uid: q1j3vpoj

The new coronavirus has become a global health concern with over 6 million infected and more than 350,000 deaths Researchers around the world are looking for solutions for early detection, monitoring of the evolution of viral infection, for etiological or pathophysiological treatment.

DR MAGDALENA CHIRILA (Orcid ID : 0000-0002-3771-6614) Article type : Letter

The new coronavirus has become a global health concern with over 6 million infected and more than 350,000 deaths [1] Researchers around the world are looking for solutions for early detection, monitoring of the evolution of viral infection, for etiological or pathophysiological treatment.

Voice is a unique human attribute. Voice has the potential to provide an easily obtained, non-invasive way to monitor physiological changes throughout the body. To produce the sounds, we need a system: the respiratory tract, the phonator, and the articulators. Respiration is necessary to produce the pressure and vibration necessary for phonation: the air passes through the larynx, tissues vibrate to produce sound waves, and articulators are the shaping of raw sound into recognizable speech. Normal voice production depends on power and airflow supplied by the respiratory system. Any disturbance in one of the three subsystems of voice production may lead to a voice disturbance. Recognizing associations among these factors, along with patient history, may help in identifying the possible causes of the voice disorder.

[2]

Voice-related features were found to have a predictive value for different pathologies. A glottal-flow spectrum and vocal jitter were found to discriminate near-term risk suicidal subjects. [3] Some studies that have attempted to quantify voice parameters (acoustic amplitude and frequency variations) with the purpose of characterizing the idiopathic Parkinson's disease dysphonic symptoms. [4] Wheezing and coughing, trouble breathing, coughing up mucus and

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved shortness of breath are just a few COPD symptoms and many patients experience voice changes due to COPD. [5] Murton et al. [6] analyzed the voices of heart failure (HF) patients as they underwent treatment for decompensated HF and returned to a stable clinical state.

How the voice acoustical analysis can help us identifying respiratory and breathing problems, the main concern today regarding patients with CoViD-19? Voice processing has become a fast-growing field. Voice disorder databases can be used in clinics as well as in automatic voice disorder detection systems to study the acoustic behavior of the voices. Audio recording is the most important basic requisite for voice quality assessment.

[2] Coordination between the larynx and lower airways is essential for normal voice production. While 81% people with COVID-19 develop only mild or uncomplicated illness [7], approximately 14% develop severe disease that requires hospitalization and oxygen support, and 5% require admission to an intensive care unit. [8] In severe cases, COVID-19 can be complicated by the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis and septic shock, multiorgan failure, including acute kidney injury and cardiac injury. [9] It may be possible to monitor a person's health remotelyusing smartphonesby recording short speech samples and analyzing them for 

Accepted Article This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved 2. Dejonckere, P. H. Assessment of voice and respiratory function

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