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The anisotropic nature of the human vocal fold: an ex vivo study

  • Laryngology
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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to measure the relationship between the shear elastic properties of vocal fold with respect to the direction of applied stress. There is extensive published material that quantifies the shear viscoelastic properties of the vocal fold, but as much of these data were obtained using rotating parallel plate rheometers, which are unable to resolve out difference of the shear elastic behaviour with respect to direction, there is very little data that indicates anisotropic behaviour. To overcome this gap in knowledge, the team devised an apparatus that is capable of applying a shear stress in a known direction. A series of measurements were taken at the mid-membranous position, in the transverse and longitudinal directions. Point-specific measurements were performed using fourteen human cadaver excised larynges, which were hemi-sectioned to expose the vocal fold. An extremely low sinusoidal shear force of 1 g was applied tangentially to the membrane surface in both the longitudinal and transverse direction, and the resultant shear strain was measured. With the probe applied to the intact vocal fold, the average ratio of the elasticity in the transverse with respect to the longitudinal direction was 0.55. Further investigation using histological staining of collagens in the lamina propria indicates that there is a visible difference in the general alignment of collagen fibres when comparing the coronal and the sagittal sections. Our conclusion is that there is a quantifiable difference between the shear elastic response of the lamina propria in the longitudinal and transverse directions, and that this could be explained by the difference in alignment of collagen fibres within the lamina propria.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Voice, Speech and Hearing Disorders, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

    Anna-Katharina Rohlfs, Markus Hess & Frank Müller

  2. Centre for Computational Intelligence-Bioinformatics Group, Faculty of Technology, DeMontfort University, Leicester, UK

    Eric Goodyer

  3. Department of Pathology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

    Till Clauditz & Susan Koops

  4. Erich Thienhaus Institute, University of Music Detmold, Detmold, Germany

    Malte Kob

  5. Institute for Forensic Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany

    Klaus Püschel

  6. Department of Radiology, Klinikum Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany

    Frank W. Roemer

Authors
  1. Anna-Katharina Rohlfs
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  2. Eric Goodyer
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  3. Till Clauditz
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  4. Markus Hess
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  5. Malte Kob
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  6. Susan Koops
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  7. Klaus Püschel
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  8. Frank W. Roemer
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  9. Frank Müller
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Correspondence to Anna-Katharina Rohlfs.

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Rohlfs, AK., Goodyer, E., Clauditz, T. et al. The anisotropic nature of the human vocal fold: an ex vivo study. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 270, 1885–1895 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-013-2428-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-013-2428-x

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