Voice Loss, Hoarseness, & Lupus Symptoms

What is voice loss? When speaking about voice loss, we are typically talking about a hoarse, breathy voice which is known by the name ‘dysphonia.’ By itself, dysphonia is not simply a symptom of lupus. It can be caused by laryngitis, a cold, allergies, or even speaking or singing too loudly without resting (like cheering or screaming). The timbre of the voice may also change in other ways. It could be raspy, strained, or simply softer and lower in pitch. Lupus & voice loss Although voice loss isn’t a well-recognized sign of lupus, there are people discussing the symptom in online communities. For many people, it seems to be most prevalent during flares and the severity of the voice loss varies from person to person. Lupus Warriors have reported mild hoarseness to total voice loss that can last for several days. A case study from 1996 published in the Journal of Laryngology & Otology provided details about a woman who reported being hoarse for two years. Her clinicians found nodules on her vocal folds that were similar to rheumatoid nodules. Rather than perform surgery, the clinicians treated the nodules with prednisolone. This not only helped the symptoms, it also led the doctors to diagnose atypical-SLE. Recent research has expanded on this case study. Published in 2017, researchers measured the vocal quality and self-reported vocal difficulties of 36 people with lupus and control participants. Vocal quality was measured using the GRBAS scale which measures: Grade Roughness Breathiness Asthenia (physical weakness of voice) Strain The researchers found that people with lupus had “significantly lower vocal intensity and harmonics to noise ratio, as well as increased jitter and shimmer” in their voices. Most people reported at least one vocal deficit (29 out of 36 participants) with the most common symptoms being vocal fatigue and dysphonia. Additionally, the researchers looked into tissue damage in the organ systems related to dysphonia. They found that increased tissue damage was correlated with increased symptoms. This suggests that the voice loss was due to tissue damage potentially caused by SLE.

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