Laryngovideostroboscopy useful for vocal fold lesion screening

(HealthDay)—Laryngovideostroboscopy (LVS) is effective for screening each patient with persistent dysphonia for vocal fold lesions, according to a study published online Jan. 10 in Head & Neck.

Anna Rzepakowska, M.D., Ph.D., from Warsaw Medical University in Poland, and colleagues compared the diagnostic accuracy of narrow band imaging (NBI) and LVS in the assessment of vocal fold lesions among 105 consecutive patients.

The researchers found that there were no significant differences between NBI and LVS in identifying premalignant and malignant pathologies. However, when assessing malignant lesions only, the specificity (88.9 versus 20.6 percent), accuracy (90.5 versus 51.4 percent), and positive predictive value (84.8 versus 45.1 percent) were significantly higher for NBI (P value < 0.001, 0.015, and 0.045, respectively).

"The NBI and LVS are useful, complementary tools in evaluating early potential vocal fold malignancies," the authors write.