High-Speed Video or Video Stroboscopy in Children: Which Sheds More Light?

Abstract

Objectives:

(1) Compare the utility of high-speed video (HSV) versus videostroboscopy (VS) in the assessment of children with normal voices and glottic pathologies. (2) Evaluate the ease of assessment of children with HSV.

Methods:

This study involved a retrospective assessment of 7 children who had previously undergone HSV and VS in the past 5 years. The 14 videos of these 7 patients were then randomized and presented to 4 groups of blinded evaluators: 2 trained laryngologists, 2 speech language pathologists (SLP) with voice training and experience in a voice clinic, 2 pediatric otolaryngologists, and 2 otolaryngology residents. Raters were asked to evaluate the videos using a standardized scoring tool and to complete a questionnaire assessing their opinion of HSV and VS.

Results:

Evaluators required more time to complete their assessment of VS (2.95 minutes ± 2.41 minutes) than HSV (2.31 minutes ± 1.92 minutes; P = .004). There was no difference with respect to ease of evaluation (P = .878), diagnostic accuracy across evaluator groups or in recording modality accuracy (P = .5). The overall agreement between VS and HSV was moderate. (Kappa [SE]: 0.446 [0.029]). The debrief questionnaire revealed that 5 out of 8 (62.5%) preferred VS to HSV.

Conclusions:

This is the first comparative study between HSV and VS in patients under 18 years of age. HSV permitted faster evaluation than VS with similar diagnostic accuracy between the 2 modalities. However, the evaluators in this study preferred VS to HSV.