Spinocerebellar Degeneration is usually an inherited progressive disease; however, toxicity and vitamin deficiency can result in the acquired type of cerebellar degeneration disease.Additionally, there are pieces of evidence that some Systemic Rheumatological Diseases such as sarcoidosis, rheumatoid, scleroderma can result in having VF paresis. Cardiovascular
A rare cause of vocal cord paresis that often presents itself as unexplained hoarseness is cardiovocal syndrome or Ortners syndrome. Although it was originally identified in patients with left atrial enlargement, the definition has expanded to include aneurysms of the aortic arch, pulmonary hypertension due to mixed connective tissue disease, or aberrant subclavian artery syndrome among other causes of left recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy with cardiovascular origin. Diagnosis
There are a variety of ways to diagnose vocal fold paralysis. Important indications of possible causes can be revealed in the patients medical history, which may inform which diagnostic approach is taken. Voice diagnostics are used to assess voice quality and vocal performance. Voice assessment is necessary to plan and estimate the success of a possible speech therapy. [12]An auditory-perceptual evaluation is conducted by a Speech-Language Pathologist (S-LP), and allows changes in voice quality to be monitored over time. There are two scales which can be used to subjectively measure voice quality: the GRBAS (grade, roughness, breathiness, asthenia, strain) and the CAPE-V (Consensus Auditory Perceptual Evaluation of Voice). The GRBAS is used to rate the patients voice quality on 5 dimensions: grade (overall severity), roughness, breathiness, asthenia (weakness) and strain. Each dimension will receive a severity rating from 0 (not present) to 3 (severe).
Vocal cord paresis, also known as recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis or vocal fold paralysis, is an injury to one or both recurrent laryngeal nerves (RLNs), which control all intrinsic muscles of the larynx except for the cricothyroid muscle. The RLN is important for speaking, breathing and swallowing.The primary larynx-related functions of the mainly efferent nerve fiber RLN, include the transmission of nerve signals to the muscles responsible for regulation of the vocal folds position and tension to enable vocalization, as well as the transmission of sensory nerve signals from the mucous membrane of the larynx to the brain. A unilateral injury of the nerve typically results in hoarseness caused by a reduced mobility of one of the vocal folds. It may also cause minor shortages of breath as well as aspiration problems especially concerning liquids. A bilateral injury causes the vocal folds to impair the air flow resulting in breathing problems, stridor and snoring sounds, and fast physical exhaustion. This strongly depends on the median or paramedian position of the paralyzed vocal folds. Hoarseness rarely occurs in bilaterally paralyzed vocal folds. Signs and symptoms
Typically, patients with vocal fold paresis or paralysis are able to identify the onset of their symptoms. The most commonly reported symptom patients with either vocal fold paresis or paralysis make is having a rough voice quality. It is important to note that the symptoms of vocal fold paresis are not specific to the condition and tend to be common symptoms of other voice disorders as well.