TY  - JOUR
AU  - Lin, Heng-Yu Haley
AU  - Chu, Yuan-Chia
AU  - Lai, Ying-Hui
AU  - Cheng, Hsiu-Lien
AU  - Lai, Feipei
AU  - Cheng, Yen-Fu
AU  - Liao, Wen-Huei
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/11/11
TI  - A Smartphone-Based Approach to Screening for Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss: Cross-Sectional Validity Study
JO  - JMIR Mhealth Uhealth
SP  - e23047
VL  - 8
IS  - 11
KW  - sudden sensorineural hearing loss
KW  - hearing test
KW  - telemedicine
KW  - mobile apps
KW  - pure tone
KW  - audiometry
AB  - Background: Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SSNHL) is an otologic emergency that warrants urgent management. Pure-tone audiometry remains the gold standard for definitively diagnosing SSNHL. However, in clinical settings such as primary care practices and urgent care facilities, conventional pure-tone audiometry is often unavailable. Objective: This study aimed to determine the correlation between hearing outcomes measured by conventional pure-tone audiometry and those measured by the proposed smartphone-based Ear Scale app and determine the diagnostic validity of the hearing scale differences between the two ears as obtained by the Ear Scale app for SSNHL. Methods: This cross-sectional study included a cohort of 88 participants with possible SSNHL who were referred to an otolaryngology clinic or emergency department at a tertiary medical center in Taipei, Taiwan, between January 2018 and June 2019. All participants underwent hearing assessments with conventional pure-tone audiometry and the proposed smartphone-based Ear Scale app consecutively. The gold standard for diagnosing SSNHL was defined as the pure-tone average (PTA) difference between the two ears being ≥30 dB HL. The hearing results measured by the Ear Scale app were presented as 20 stratified hearing scales. The hearing scale difference between the two ears was estimated to detect SSNHL. Results: The study sample comprised 88 adults with a mean age of 46 years, and 50% (44/88) were females. PTA measured by conventional pure-tone audiometry was strongly correlated with the hearing scale assessed by the Ear Scale app, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of .88 (95% CI .82-.92). The sensitivity of the 5–hearing scale difference (25 dB HL difference) between the impaired ear and the contralateral ear in diagnosing SSNHL was 95.5% (95% CI 87.5%-99.1%), with a specificity of 66.7% (95% CI 43.0%-85.4%). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the proposed smartphone-based Ear Scale app can be useful in the evaluation of SSNHL in clinical settings where conventional pure-tone audiometry is not available. 
SN  - 2291-5222
UR  - http://mhealth.jmir.org/2020/11/e23047/
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2196/23047
UR  - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33174845
DO  - 10.2196/23047
ID  - info:doi/10.2196/23047
ER  -