Análise da voz como parâmetro de avaliação respiratória na Pós COVID-19

Abstract

Respiratory diseases are among the ten leading causes of death in the world, among them the new coronavirus (COVID-19) which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020 and present moment more than 765,000,000 cases. In this context, it is important to deepen the studies related to the new coronavirus, noting that there is the possibility of developing differential instruments for the diagnosis, screening and monitoring of pulmonary diseases, including for COVID-19, through the correlation of the analysis vocal and respiratory. In this sense, the research aimed to develop a protocol for vocal and respiratory evaluation of people recovering from COVID-19. As a pilot application study, an exploratory research with a quantitative approach was conducted, with participants recovering from COVID-19, selected through epidemiological data from Santa Fé Municipal Health Department. The protocol developed and applied consisted of anamnesis, vocal and respiratory assessment tests, and a functional test. The anamnesis included participants anthropometric meansures, complaints of current symptoms and diagnosis of COVID-19, in addition the fatigue was reported. Then, for the vocal evaluation, the acoustic analysis of voice was performed using Praat software, using the parameters: Maximum phonatory time, Jitter, Shimmer, Fundamental frequency and Intensity. Finally, for functional assessment, the six-minute walk test (6MWT) was performed. In addition, vital data such as: blood pressure, oxygen saturation, heart and respiratory rate, and measurement of dyspnea on exertion using the Borg Scale was evaluated. The statistical analysis was carried out in a descriptive and inferential way using the SPSS software. The Chi-square test of independence was applied, and statistical significance level adopted was p ≤0.05. Preliminary analyzes did not show a statistically significant correlation between the variables, but we can observe a tendency towards a relationship between the measures of maximum phonation time, distance covered in the 6MWT and the report of fatigue.