We selected 43 patients with tinnitus seen in our service between March 2006 and January 2007. Inclusion criteria were sensorineural-related tinnitus, and we ruled out cases of concurrent external and middle ear diseases and TMJ disorders. Tonal and vocal audiometry and impedance tests were carried out in all the patients, and we took off those with conductive hearing loss, mixed hearing loss and those with types A-r, A-d, C and B tympanic curves. The audiometer we used was an AMPLAID A 177 PLUS, and the AMPLAID 750 impedance meter.
We asked the patients to fill out a validated questionnaire, in the case of THI (Tinnitus Handicap Inventory) in its Portuguese version. Moreover, the patients classified their tinnitus according to the visual-analogue scale, from 1 to 10 (in terms of volume and disturbance), and we correlated THI and VAS scores through the Spearman’s coefficient correlation. Spearman’s correlation coefficient (rs) measures the level of association between two variables. This coefficient varies from -1 to 1, the closer it is to 1 or -1, the stronger is the association the closer it is to zero, the weaker the relation between the two variables. The negative coefficient expresses an inverse relationship between the two variables.
The study was approved by the Ethics in Research Committee of the Valença Medical School, under protocol # 003/2006.
We asked the patients to fill out a validated questionnaire, in the case of THI (Tinnitus Handicap Inventory) in its Portuguese version. Moreover, the patients classified their tinnitus according to the visual-analogue scale, from 1 to 10 (in terms of volume and disturbance), and we correlated THI and VAS scores through the Spearman’s coefficient correlation. Spearman’s correlation coefficient (rs) measures the level of association between two variables. This coefficient varies from -1 to 1, the closer it is to 1 or -1, the stronger is the association the closer it is to zero, the weaker the relation between the two variables. The negative coefficient expresses an inverse relationship between the two variables.
The study was approved by the Ethics in Research Committee of the Valença Medical School, under protocol # 003/2006.
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