Elasticity measurements in scarred rabbit vocal folds using air pulse stimulation

Abstract

This study aimed to compare vocal fold elasticity data from a new method for non-invasive analysis by stimulations of the mucosa with short air pulses. The depth of the mucosal deflections is measured with laser pulses by means of a special algorithm. Ten scarred New Zealand rabbit vocal folds and four normal rabbit folds were measured directly after sacrifice. The elastic data were compared to histological sections from the scarred vocal folds analysed by a pathologist. The results showed significantly lower elasticity (higher stiffness) values for the more scarred vocal folds as compared to samples with minor damage (P=0.03). It is concluded that the air pulse stimulation method is a promising tool for non-invasive quantification of vocal fold scarring.

Key words::

• Air pulse stimulation
• elasticity
• vocal fold scarring

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by grants from Karolinska Institute, from Laryngfonden and Apotekare Hedbergs funding for medical research.

We acknowledge Professor Lars Åhrlund Richter at Women and Childs Health Department Karolinska Institute for providing lab resources and fruitful discussions and suggestions about the project, and Professor Katarina LeBlanc at Centre for Allogenic Stem Cell Transplantation and Division of Clinical Immunology, Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge and Karolinska Institutet, Sweden for providing the cells for injections.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.