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The purpose of this study was to determine the acoustic effects of lingual nerve impairment on speech. Neurophysiologic examination and thermal quantitative sensory testing (QST) were carried out to determine if the profile, type or severity of sensory nerve impairment had effects on the degree of speech changes. The study group consisted of 5 women and 5 men with lingual nerve damage following an oral and maxillofacial surgery procedure. Time interval between the examination and the nerve damage ranged from 1 month to 20 years. Formants and fundamental frequency and duration of vowel sounds were analyzed. The patients underwent sensory tests, blink reflex and thermal QST of the lingual nerve area. The lingual nerve impairment had effects on the central acoustic features of vowel sounds. A relationship was observed between warm detection threshold values and the magnitude of second formant changes in men. It is concluded that lingual nerve impairment has gender-specific effects on speech. The variability in the acoustic changes of vowel sounds between different patients indicates individual compensatory manners of speech production following lingual nerve impairment.

Cardiac repolarization is regulated, in part, by the KCNH2 gene, which encodes a rapidly activating component of the delayed rectifier potassium channel. The gene expresses a functional single nucleotide polymorphism, K897T, which changes the biophysical properties of the channel. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether this polymorphism influences two indices of repolarization--the QT interval and T-wave alternans (TWA)--during different phases of a physical exercise test.The cohort consisted of 1,975 patients undergoing an exercise test during which on-line electrocardiographic data were registered. Information on coronary risk factors and medication was recorded. The 2690AC nucleotide variation in the KCNH2 gene corresponding to the K897T amino acid change was analysed after polymerase chain reaction with allele-specific TaqMan probes.Among all subjects, the QTc intervals did not differ between the three genotype groups (por =0.31, RANOVA). Women with the CC genotype tended to have longer QT intervals during the exercise test, but the difference was statistically significant only at rest (p = 0.011, ANOVA). This difference was also detected when the analysis was adjusted for several factors influencing the QT interval. No statistically significant effects of the K897T polymorphism on TWA were observed among all subjects (p = 0.16, RANOVA), nor in men and women separately.The K897T polymorphism of the KCNH2 gene may not be a major genetic determinant for the TWA, but the influence of the CC genotype on QT interval deserves further research among women.

By measuring spectral characteristics of the sibilant /s/ this study investigated whether the reduced orosensory feedback caused by lingual nerve impairment affects the acoustics and articulation of sibilants. A further goal was to examine speakers' capability to compensate for the deviant control of the delicate movements required for the proper production of /s/ by experimentally modifying the function of the tongue in a way that reduces the necessary somatosensory information in articulation. Five healthy men with no speech, language or hearing abnormalities were enrolled. They produced the sibilant /s/ in a variety of phonetic contexts in two sessions: first in normal conditions and then with local anaesthesia of the right lingual nerve. From the speech samples, the spectral characteristics of the sibilant sound (i.e. the centre of gravity, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis) were analysed acoustically. The results showed that the reduced tactile sensation has effects on the tongue function resulting in individual and variable spectral alterations. The variation between different speakers indicates individual ability to compensate for the effects caused by the sensory dysfunction of the tongue. It seems, therefore, that the compensatory mechanisms for speech production are highly speaker-dependent.

The effects of orthognathic surgery on the phonetic quality of speech were studied by analyzing the main acoustic features of vowel sounds.Five men with dentofacial deformities undergoing surgical operation for correction of malocclusion were enrolled in the study. The speech material consisted of 8 vowels in sentence context. Every utterance was repeated 10 times in 3 different sessions: before the operation, 6 weeks after the operation, and 30 weeks after the operation. The acoustic features (F1, F2, F0, duration) of vowels were measured and analyzed.At the group level, no significant acoustic changes were found between the 3 different sessions in any parameter measured (all F values1). The results show that the operation had individual and variable effects on vowel quality, ranging from slightly affected to completely unaffected. The 2 lowest vocal-tract resonances changed in frequency for 2 of the subjects, and 1 subject had short-term changes returning to the presurgical level. Significant changes of F0 were observed for 1 subject, and 3 of the subjects had short-term changes. No significant changes were found for duration. One subject had no significant changes in any parameter measured.No long-lasting perceptually significant changes were identified in vowel production in patients undergoing a variety of orthognathic procedures. The facial skeleton (consisting of palate, maxilla, mandible, dentition, nasal cavity, etc) imposes direct limits on the morphology of the resonating vocal tract cavities, and is therefore of immediate relevance to both speech articulation and acoustics.

Background— Infectious agents, especially bacteria and their components originating from the oral cavity or respiratory tract, have been suggested to contribute to inflammation in the coronary plaque, leading to rupture and the subsequent development of coronary thrombus. We aimed to measure bacterial DNA in thrombus aspirates of patients with ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction and to check for a possible association between bacteria findings and oral pathology in the same cohort. Methods and Results— Thrombus aspirates and arterial blood from patients with ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention (n=101; 76% male; mean age, 63.3 years) were analyzed with real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction with specific primers and probes to detect bacterial DNA from several oral species and Chlamydia pneumoniae. The median value for the total amount of bacterial DNA in thrombi was 16 times higher than that found in their blood samples. Bacterial DNA typical for endodontic infection, mainly oral viridans streptococci, was measured in 78.2% of thrombi, and periodontal pathogens were measured in 34.7%. Bacteria-like structures were detected by transmission electron microscopy in all 9 thrombus samples analyzed; whole bacteria were detected in 3 of 9 cases. Monocyte/macrophage markers for bacteria recognition (CD14) and inflammation (CD68) were detected in thrombi (8 of 8) by immunohistochemistry. Among the subgroup of 30 patients with myocardial infarction examined by panoramic tomography, a significant association between the presence of periapical abscesses and oral viridans streptococci DNA–positive thrombi was found (odds ratio, 13.2; 95% confidence interval, 2.11–82.5; P =0.004). Conclusions— Dental infection and oral bacteria, especially viridans streptococci, may be associated with the development of acute coronary thrombosis.

We thank the authors of the letters for their interest in our publication.1 Their comments focused on Chlamydia pneumoniae –negative finding, role of infection burden and coexistence of multiple pathogens, clinical usefulness of findings, and how the chronic oral infection is involved in acute coronary events. For the last 2 decades, C pneumoniae has been the strongest candidate bacteria behind atherosclerotic inflammation. According to the recent review by Joshi et al,2 there are a total of 1652 published articles on this subject, and various techniques (immunocytochemistry, polymerase chain reaction [PCR], in situ hybridization, electron microscopy, and culturing) have been used to determine the presence of C pneumoniae in vascular tissues. The range of C pneumoniae –positive patients varies greatly across studies from 0% to 100%. Apfalter et al3 reported that 89% of all patients studied had C pneumoniae –specific antibodies, but the pathogen was not detected in a single carotid atheroma by real-time PCR and cell culture in carotid endarterectomy samples. So …

The effects of lingual nerve impairment on the phonetic quality of diphthongs were studied by analyzing changes in their main acoustic features when anesthetic was injected into the lingual nerve to partly block the normal neural feedback mechanisms in speech.The speech material consisted of 8 diphthongs in word context produced by 7 male speakers. Every utterance was repeated 10 times using normal speech rate and intonation with and without the anesthesia (Ultracain D-Suprarenin, 0.8 mL; Aventis Pharma Deutscland GmpH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany). In addition, 1 male speaker with permanent nerve impairment was studied. The acoustic features (F1, F2, F0, and duration) were analyzed using Computerized Speech Laboratory (CSL 4300B; Kay Elemetrics, Lincoln Park, NJ).At the group level, no general significant acoustic changes were found between the 2 conditions. The changes were highly individual and variable across the subjects. Significant changes were observed for all the subjects, most prominently for the subject with permanent nerve impairment.According to the results, lingual nerve impairment has effects on the production of diphthongs. A comparison between monophthongs and diphthongs showed that the alterations are more significant for the diphthongs than for other vowels indicating the more demanding, complicated, and complex manner of articulation of diphthongs.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of the lingual nerve impairment on phonetic quality of speech by analyzing the main acoustic features of vowel sounds when the normal lingual nerve function was partly distorted by local anesthesia. Patients and Methods: The study group consisted of 7 men, whose right side lingual nerve was anesthetized with 0.8 mL of Ultracain D-Suprarenin (Aventis Pharma Deutschland GmpH, Frankfurt am Main, Germany). The speech material analyzed consisted of 8 vowels produced in sentence context by speakers. Every utterance was repeated 10 times with and without local anesthesia. After recording, the speech samples were analyzed with a computerized speech laboratory. In addition, the vowels of 1 man with permanent nerve impairment were studied. Results: The results show that the deprived function of the tongue after lingual nerve impairment had various effects on vowel quality for every subject. The main acoustic determinants of different vowels, the lowest vocal tract resonances, changed in frequency. In addition, the total duration of vowels changed and the vowels had different fundamental frequencies. However, these effects were extremely individual and variable. Conclusions: According to the results of acoustic analysis, the distortion of lingual nerve function has effects on vowel production. Some of these changes were so extensive that they also could be perceptually detectable. Lingual nerve impairment seems to have potential to change speech production. © 2002 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons J Oral Maxillofac Surg 60:647-652, 2002

SDNN 0.583 (0.29444) 0.699 (0.44344) 0.753 (0.71244) cSDNN 0.763 (-0.35644) 0.631 (-0.1724) 0.500 (0.1794) SD1 0.534 (0.50444) 0.608 (0.20544 0.729 (0.63744) cSD1 0.627 (-0.1754) 0.747 (-0.34444) 0.621 (-0.105) SD2 0.585 (0.27944) 0.740 (0.55744) 0.734 (0.61144) cSD2 0.765 (-0.37144) 0.556 (-0.1634) 0.645 (-0.29844) STD 0.576 (-0.128) 0.626 (-0.035) 0.717 (-0.2554) 4 P b .05. 44 P b .01.

Effects of reduced orosensory feedback on the production of fricative sounds were studied by measuring spectral characteristics of medioalveolar /s/. Five Finnish male speakers produced sibilant /s/ embedded in 8 different word contexts under normal condition and under reduced condition, in which the tactile information from the tongue was reduced by blocking the lingual nerve on the right side by local anesthesia. Parameters of Long Time Average (LTA) spectrum (i.e., center of gravity, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis) were measured by Praat software for every speaker. In comparison between the two conditions, center of gravity, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis changed for every speaker. However, the changes were variable and individual. The results of acoustic analysis show that reduced tactile sensation have effects on tongue function producing spectral alterations for sibilant /s/. The inter‐individual variation between different talkers suggests that there are no general compensat...