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Using Spirometry to Diagnose and Treat Vocal Cord Dysfunction

Using Spirometry to Diagnose and Treat Vocal Cord Dysfunction
Bridget Russell
May 3, 2011

 

This text-based course is a written transcript of the course, "Using Spirometry to Diagnose and Treat Vocal Cord Dysfunction", presented by Bridget Russell on February 28, 2011.

This text is being provided in a rough draft format. Communication Access Realtime Translation is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings.


Click Here to View Supplemental Handouts

>> Amy Hansen: Good afternoon and welcome to today's expert e-seminar titled "Using Spirometry to Diagnose and Treat Vocal Cord Dysfunction" presented by Dr. Bridget Russell. Dr. Russell received her B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She is an Associate Professor at the State University of New York College at Fredonia. Her research interests are speech ventilation and cost of breathing, and voice/respiratory disorders affecting speech production. She has over 90 regional, state, national and international presentations. She has published works in JSHL, CICSD, and Voice and Speech Review and has served as editorial consultant for JSHLR and Delmar Publishing Group. She is director of the Speech Production Laboratory at SUNY College at Fredonia and is researching the efficacy of voice therapy with patients at the Voice Center of Western New York. So welcome this afternoon, Bridget. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us.

>> Dr. Russell: Thank you, Amy. I would like to thank SpeechPathlogy.com for this opportunity. I have done several presentations in this venue. I think it is very productive. It also allows for people who are not normally able to get out and about to different conferences the ability to really have an expansive amount of information at their fingertips. So let me start by asking a question. How many of the participants currently have some experience with using a spirometer of a digital type or a wet spirometer or a dry spirometer? Okay. So I'm getting a few responses here. I do have some introductory information I think I will present based on the response I just received.

We're going to talk about vocal cord dysfunction today and also talk about the assessment and treatment methods that we can use using different types of instrumentation, and more specifically the spirometer, the digital spirometer, which measures not only vital capacity but also measures flow volume loop.

Some of my educational background lies in the field of exercise science. And exercise sciences, the assessment and treatment plans for most individuals with breathing difficulties, obstructive pulmonary kinds of diseases includes doing these flow volume loop measures. I'm going to introduce those to you today. I know it is not typical to the speech language pathology master's degree programs, at least.

Vocal Cord Dysfunction - Other Names

How many people have actually worked with patients with vocal cord dysfunction in their practices or in their workplace? Okay. So there are more people that have experience with the VCD rather than instrumentation itself. That is not unusual.

Vocal cord dysfunction has many names in the literature.

  • Paradoxical Vocal Fold Motion

  • Paradoxical vocal cord motion

  • Episodic paroxysmal laryngospasm

  • Factitious asthma

  • Munchausen's stridor

  • Psychogenic stridor

  • Episodic laryngeal dyskinesia

  • Adductor laryngeal breathing dystonia

Bridget Russell



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