Telecounselling and face to face hearing aid verification: repeated measures/Verificacao da protese auditiva realizada face a face e via teleconsulta: medidas repetidas

Purpose: to evaluate the repeated measurements of the real ear unaided response (REUR), real ear aided response (REAR) and insertion gain (REIG) conducted as face to face (F) and via telecounselling (T). Method: longitudinal prospective study. Four measures of REUR, REAR and REIG (carried out with speech noise stimulus presented at 65 dB SPL at 0° azimuth) were obtained in 19 ears in normal hearing adults, face to face and via synchronous telecounsellings with remote control of the real ear equipment and interactive video. Polycom PVX software was used for desktop sharing and video and audio transmission. The Loca Area Network (LAN) USP was used for the connection (transmission rate: 384 kbps). Dahlberg's casual errors were calculated for obtaining the measures for frequencies from 250 to 8000 Hz. Results: casual errors between F and T measures were very similar, being greater for frequencies above 4 kHz. The differences between F and T measures were no greater than the variability reported for real ear measures. Conclusion: probe microphone measures obtained via telecounselling provides reliable results and similar to those obtained by standard procedures. KEYWORDS: Hearing; Hearing Aids; Hearing Loss; Telemedicine Objetivo: avaliar as medidas repetidas da resposta de ressonancia da orelha externa sem (REUR) e com uso de amplificacao (REAR) e o ganho de insercao (REIG), realizados face a face e via teleconsulta. MEtodo: estudo prospectivo longitudinal. Foram realizadas quatro repeticoes da REUR, REAR e REIG (com estimulo speech noise apresentado em 65 dB NPS e 0° azimute) em 19 orelhas de adultos ouvintes normais, via face a face (F) e teleconsulta sincrona por controle remoto de aplicativo (T) e video interativo. O software Polycom PVX foi utilizado para compartilhamento e transmissao de audio e video. A conexao foi realizada via LAN (Local Area Network) USP na velocidade de 384 kbps Foi calculado o erro causal (Dalhberg) entre as quatro medidas para frequencias de 250 a 8000 Hz. Resultados: os erros casuais entre as medidas F e T foram muito semelhantes, sendo maiores nas frequencias acima de 4 kHz. As diferencas e variacoes entre as medidas F e T estavam dentro da magnitude de variabilidade do procedimento de medidas com microfone sonda. Conclusao: as medidas com microfone sonda via teleconsulta fornece resultados confiaveis e similares aos obtidos pelo procedimento padrao. DESCRITORES: Audicao; Auxiliares de Audicao; Perda Auditiva; Telemedicina