Automatic Quantification of Vocal Cord Paralysis - An Application of Fibre-optic Endoscopy Video Processing

Full movement of the vocal cords is necessary for life sustaining functions. To enable correct diagnosis of reduced vocal cord motion and thereby potentially enhance treatment outcomes, it is proposed to objectively determine the degree of vocal cord paralysis in contrast to the current clinical practice of subjective evaluation. Our study shows that quantitative assessment can be achieved using optical flow based motion estimation of the opening and closing movements of the vocal cords. The novelty of the proposed method lies in the automatic processing of fibre-optic endoscopy videos to derive an objective measure for the degree of paralysis, without the need for high-end data acquisition systems such as high speed cameras or stroboscopy. Initial studies with three video samples yield promising results and encourage further investigation of vocal cord paralysis using this technique.