Measurement of the Viscoelastic Properties of the Vocal Folds

Objectives Studies of the viscoelastic properties of the vocal folds are normally performed with rheometers that use parallel plates whose interplate space is usually arbitrarily assigned a fixed value. In tissues subject to variation of thickness between samples, fixed gaps could result in differen...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of otology, rhinology & laryngology rhinology & laryngology, 2009-06, Vol.118 (6), p.461-464
Main Authors: Wiikmann, Christian, da Silva, Marcelo Alves, Arêas, Elizabeth Pinheiro Gomes, Tsuji, Domingos Hiroshi, Sennes, Luiz Ubirajara
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Biological and medical sciences
Cadaver
Compressive Strength - physiology
Elasticity
Female
Humans
Laryngeal Mucosa - physiopathology
Male
Medical sciences
Middle Aged
Otorhinolaryngology. Stomatology
Rheology
Tissue Culture Techniques
Viscosity
Vocal Cords - physiopathology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Objectives Studies of the viscoelastic properties of the vocal folds are normally performed with rheometers that use parallel plates whose interplate space is usually arbitrarily assigned a fixed value. In tissues subject to variation of thickness between samples, fixed gaps could result in different compressions, compromising the comparison among them. We performed an experimental study to determine whether different compressions can lead to different results in measurements of dynamic viscosity (DV) of vocal fold samples. Methods We measured the DV of vocal fold samples of 10 larynges of cadavers under 3 different compression levels, corresponding to 0.2, 0.5, and 10 N on an 8-mm-diameter parallel-plate rheometer. Results The DV directly varied with compression. We observed statistically significant differences between the results of 0.2 and 10 N (p = 0.0396) and 0.5 and 10 N (p = 0.0442). Conclusions The study demonstrated that the level of compression influences the DV measure and suggests that a defined compression level should be used in rheometric studies of biological tissues.
ISSN:0003-4894
1943-572X
DOI:10.1177/000348940911800609