Department of ENT, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK.
Department of ENT, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK.
J Laryngol Otol. 2024 Mar;138(3):289-296. doi: 10.1017/S002221512300138X. Epub 2023 Aug 17.
Sudden hearing loss is a common presentation to ENT. In the authors' practice, patients often wait many weeks for formal hearing testing. This study aimed to assess whether a tablet-based hearing test, hearTest, could aid clinical decision-making within secondary care ENT.
This was a multi-centre, prospective, non-randomised study to assess the feasibility, usability and accuracy of hearTest.
In the sample, hearTest was shown to be an acceptable method of testing for hearing loss by both patients and clinicians. The 0.5-4 kHz range had an average clinical agreement rate of 95.1 per cent when compared with formal pure tone audiometry, deeming it an accurate test to diagnose hearing loss.
The authors propose that hearTest can be used within ENT as a clinical decision support tool when manual audiometry is not immediately available. Within the authors' practice, hearTest is used to aid diagnosis and management of sudden sensorineural hearing loss.
突发性听力损失是耳鼻喉科常见的就诊原因。在作者的临床实践中，患者通常需要等待数周才能进行正式的听力测试。本研究旨在评估基于平板电脑的听力测试 hearTest 是否可以帮助二级保健耳鼻喉科的临床决策。
这是一项多中心、前瞻性、非随机研究，旨在评估 hearTest 的可行性、可用性和准确性。
在该样本中，hearTest 被患者和临床医生均认为是一种可接受的听力损失测试方法。与正式的纯音测听相比，0.5-4 kHz 频段的平均临床符合率为 95.1%，表明该测试可准确诊断听力损失。
作者提出，当手动测听无法立即进行时，hearTest 可在耳鼻喉科中用作临床决策支持工具。在作者的实践中，hearTest 用于辅助突发性感觉神经性听力损失的诊断和管理。
