PURPOSE: to determine and to correlate the maximum phonation times (MPT) of vowels, vital capacity (VC) and laryngeal disorders (LD) for women with benign organic lesions resulting from vocal misuse or abuse (BOL). METHOD: retrospective, transverse, exploratory, non-experimental, quantitative study, with measurement database of MPT [a, i, u], VC and LD of women with BOL, and Chi-Square statistic and exact tests of Fisher in order to investigate the differences between the variables and their relationships and a binomial test in order to check the significance of proportion or percentage of descriptive analysis, with p<0.05. RESULTS: the majority (22; 75.86%) showed MPT significantly reduced (p = 0.0053) and seven (24.14%) normal MPT. The normal VC was statistically significant (p = 0.0001) (26; 89.66%), but three women (10.34%) showed it to be reduced. There was significant dominance of vocal nodules (p = 0.0016) (22; 75.86%), followed by Reinke's edema (6, 20.69%) and vocal polyp (1; 3.45%). Among the 22 woman (75.86%) which showed reduced MPT, there was a predominance with normal VC (19; 86.36%), although no statistical significance (p = 0,558). All the individuals with normal MPT showed VC normal (7; 100%). The majority with BOL showed normal VC, although not statistically significant (p=0,199). There was a predominance of vocal nodules and reduced MPT (16; 72.73%), although not statistically significant (p=0.086). In the correlation of the three variables, most of the subjects presented vocal nodules associated with MPT reduced and normal VC (15; 68.18%), although not statistically significant. CONCLUSION: in women with BOL in this study, the reduced MPT, the normal VC and the presence of vocal nodules were significant and there was no relationship between the MPT, VC and LD.
Voice; Phonation; Vocal Folds; Voice Disorders
