Nasometric Evaluation of Nasal Resonance in Patients with Chronic Nasal Obstruction

BACKGROUND： Hyponasality may be present in patients with nasal obstruction because of decreased resonance of the nasal cavities. Recently, nasal resonance has been object-tively evaluated using nasometry. However, enaluation of resonance with nasometry has not been previously performed in patients with chronic nasal obstruction. METHODS:Mandarin-speaking patients with chronic nasal obstruction were enrolled for the study. The nasal resonance of these patients was evaluated with perceptual assessment and nasometry. During nasometry, 11 mandarin word combinations or sentences were used as speech stimuli. RESULTS;One hundred and six patients were included in the study. The mean nasalance scores(%) were 32.22 for vowels, 21.76 for plosive consonant-vowel combinations,18.89 for fricative consonant-vowel combinations, 70.04 nasal consonant-vowel combinations, 18.19 for bilabial plosive sentences, 29.39 for alveolar plosive sentences, 14.2 for velar plosive sentences, 21.68 for palatoalveolar affricate sentences, 17.9 for labiodental fricative sentences, 62.78 for nasal sentences, and 25.93 for connected number counting. These scores were all higher than for normal mandarin speakers. CONCLUSIONS;When evaluated with nasometry, increased nasalance scores were found in most patients with chronic nasal obstruction.(J Taiwan OtolaryngolHead Neck Surg 2000:35;293-297)