Performance-intensity function: speech perception in Ménière's Disease

• Grant number: 20/13045-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2020
• End date: November 30, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Speech Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Daniela Gil
• Grantee: Patricia Craveiro Fernandes
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This study aims to obtain the performance-intensity function in patients diagnosed with Ménière's disease. In addition, according to the stage of the disease, qualify through the Dizziness Handicap Inventory (DHI) and Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) questionnaires the self-reported quality of life in the presence of tinnitus and vertigo. Ménière's disease affects the inner ear, which is composed of the cochlea and semicircular canals. Symptoms include severe disabling vertigo, nausea, vomiting, a feeling of fullness in the ear and hearing loss. Hearing loss is characterized as sensorineural, in which speech discrimination and intelligibility are altered, being quantified through the Speech Audiometry. Thus, in this work, the search for the performance-intensity function will be necessary data to understand and relate the different characteristic phases of the disease with speech intelligibility. Hypothesis: Patients with different audiometric configurations have specific speech audiometry curves that assist in determining the stage of the disease.