Correlation of Glottic Gap and Voice Impairment in Presbyphonia

Objective/Hypothesis The objective of this study was to investigate the glottic gap area as a significant marker for the severity of presbyphonia as it relates to patient‐reported outcome measures (Voice Handicap Index‐10 [VHI‐10]) and stroboscopic findings. Study Design Retrospective case‐control study conducted in an academic tertiary voice center. Methods Patients seen at a tertiary voice clinic who were diagnosed with presbyphonia without other organic laryngeal pathology from January 2014 to December 2017 were included. Clinical data and laryngeal videostroboscopy videos were collected. Still images at the point of vocal process approximation during adduction were captured, and the glottic gap area was measured using ImageJ. These were compared to a control cohort. Correlations were made using Wilcoxon rank sum test, Mann–Whitney U test, and Pearson correlation coefficients. Results Thirty‐three patients were included. Inter‐rater reliability of glottic area measurement was strong (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.73, P