Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of auricular acupuncture in the pain of cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and to verify if there were alterations in the use of analgesics after the application of this intervention. Method: Randomized controlled trial with cancer patients with complaints of pain greater than or equal to four in the Numerical Pain Scale. Two parallel groups were created, an Experimental group, which received auricular acupuncture at energy balance points and at points indicated for the treatment of pain, and a Placebo group, in which fixed placebo points were used. Both groups received the application of semipermanent needles in eight sessions. Results: 31 cancer patients participated in the study. After the eight auricular acupuncture sessions, there was a significant difference between the groups regarding the reduction of pain intensity (p < 0.001) and of the use of medications (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Auricular acupuncture was effective in reducing the pain of patients receiving chemotherapy. Brazilian Registry of Clinical Trials: RBR-6k3rqh.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of auricular acupuncture on pain intensity, its impact on daily activities, the relief provided by the intervention, and the pain threshold in people with back musculoskeletal disorders. Methods: Randomized clinical trial carried out with people randomly allocated into three groups: treatment, placebo, and control. Evaluations were performed using the Brief Pain Inventory and a digital algometer before (initial) and after (final) the treatment and after a 15-day follow-up period. Results: The sample was 110 people. There was a decrease in pain intensity in the treatment and placebo groups as revealed by the comparison between the initial and final evaluations (p<0.05), and in the treatment group in the comparison between the initial and followup evaluations (p<0.05). A decreased impact of pain on daily activities in the treatment and placebo groups over time was found (p<0.05). At the final evaluation, the impact of pain was lower in the treatment group (p<0.05). Auricular acupuncture did not increase the pain threshold. Conclusion: Auricular acupuncture presented positive effects by reducing the chronic pain intensity and its impact on daily activities in people with back musculoskeletal disorders. Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry: RBR-5X69X2

Objective: To evaluate the hypothesis that internal structures of the human ear have anatomical characteristics which are distinctive enough to allow the identification of an individual within a forensic context.Materials and Methods: After data anonymization, a dataset containing temporal bone CT scans of 100 patients was processed by a radiologist not involved in the study. Four reference images for each patient were selected. Of the original sample, 10 exams were used for visual comparison case by case against the dataset of 100 patients. This visual assessment was performed independently by four observers, who evaluated the anatomical agreement by using a Likert’s scale (1–5).Interobserver agreement, true positive rate, positive predictive value, true negative rate, negative predictive value, false positive rate, false negative rate and positive likelihood ratio (LR+) were evaluated.Results: Interobserver agreement obtained an overall Cohen’s Kappa = 99.59%. True positive rate, positive predictive value, true negative rate and negative predictive value were all 100%.We observed the discordance in scoring with a confusion matrix. As Maclure and Willet had pointed out, intermediate categories will often be more prone to misclassification, as it can be perceived with the percentage of agreement (Scores 2: 7.4%; 3: 0%; and 4: 52.3%). However, extreme categories of ordinal data were highly consistent (Scores 1: 99.4%; and 5: 96.4%), which indicates this problem could possibly be addressed in a binary sense.Looking at diagnostic metrics per slice, we noticed that the coronal 1 and coronal 3, performed slightly worse than the axial and coronal 2 view, which showed near perfect results.Conclusion: Visual assessment of the mastoid exams was shown to be a robust and reliable approach to identify unique osseous features. The statistical analysis points that regardless of the examiner’s background and formation, the approach is relatively easy to apply with high degree of accuracy.

In this study apure tone audiogram was developed under the Matlab® mathemalical software. Audiogram measurements were performed lo 35 subjects belonging to the female and male and aged between 10 and 88 years old. Some of the subjects with more advanced age had hearing problems over the course of age, however, none of Ihem was carrying any type of hearing aid.

This study consisted in Lhe developrnent af ao audiogram software program using the soundboard af lhe computer and with the audiogram measurc the sensitivity 10Sl over lhe age. The audiogrum tests \Vere perfonned to 35 subjects belonging to the femule and mate gender, aged bctween 10 and 88 years. Some af lhe subjects with more advanced age had hearing problems over the course af age. However, none af lhem was carrying any type of hearing aid. Fig 1 shows lhe comparison of the average sensitivity over the decades af age. As conclusion it can be said that the developed audiogram has sensibility enough to measure the human ear sensitivity aver the audible range of frequencies. As a result of the perfonned test to subjects, as expected, lhe 10st of sensitivity over the age was confinned and measured.

A presença de afecções no ouvido é um dos problemas mais frequentemente encontrados na prática veterinária de animais de companhia. O ouvido é dividido em três componentes anatómicos e funcionais: ouvido externo, médio e interno. O ouvido externo é geralmente acessível, contudo nem sempre é fácil de avaliar, e particularmente as afecções do ouvido médio e interno constituem um desafio diagnóstico dada a complexidade e relativa inacessibilidade destas estruturas. Diversas técnicas têm vindo a ser aplicadas, melhorando a capacidade de avaliação do ouvido. Um exemplo é a vídeo-otoscopia que permite uma melhor e mais detalhada visualização das alterações do canal auditivo externo, da membrana timpânica e especialmente do interior do ouvido médio, e permite ainda a realização de outros procedimentos sobre observação directa, tais como lavagens profundas do ouvido, biópsias, injecções intralesionais, remoção de massas ou corpos estranhos e miringotomia. Outros exemplos incluem as técnicas imagiológicas de maior resolução tais como a Tomografia Computorizada (TC) e a Ressonância Magnética (RM). Estas permitem obter imagens mais detalhadas do canal auditivo, bolha timpânica e das estruturas ósseas e de tecido-moles circundantes. A TC fornece uma melhor resolução das estruturas ósseas, ao passo que a RM é uma técnica imagiológica superior relativamente aos tecidos moles. A componente prática da presente dissertação incide na avaliação de 20 casos clínicos com o objectivo de comparar as técnicas imagiológicas, TC e RM, com a vídeo-otoscopia na avaliação do ouvido e concluir acerca das vantagens e desvantagens de cada uma destas técnicas de diagnóstico. A vídeo-otoscopia demonstrou ser eficaz no diagnóstico de otite externa, contudo no que se refere a otite média está limitada ao estado do canal auditivo externo, na medida em que a estenose e/ou a presença de secreções condicionam a visualização da membrana timpânica. A vídeo-otoscopia permitiu ainda a realização de vários procedimentos de diagnóstico e terapêuticos. A TC não conseguiu detectar alguns casos de otite externa, somente diagnosticados através da vídeo-otoscopia. A RM demonstrou ser eficaz em detectar otite externa, apesar de não ser usada frequentemente para o diagnóstico desta entidade clínica. Tanto a TC como a RM demonstraram ser mais sensíveis no diagnóstico de otite média comparativamente à vídeo-otoscopia. Os casos de otite interna foram unicamente diagnosticados mediante as técnicas imagiológicas. As técnicas de diagnóstico por vídeo-otoscopia e TC/RM devem ser consideradas complementares e não exclusivas, de modo a permitir um diagnóstico completo e correcto.

In this study a pure tone audiogram was developed under the Matlab® mathematical software. Audiogram measurements were performed to 35 subjects belonging to the female and male and aged between 10 and 88 years old. Some of the subjects with more advanced age had hearing problems over the course of age, however, none of them was carrying any type of hearing aid. The threshold of the Sound Pressure Level (SPL) was recorded under 12 pure tones between 125 Hz and 15 kHz. The developed pure-tone audiogram confirmed its ability to produce auditory brainstem responses (ABRs). Statistical analysis of the SPL threshold shows no differences between genders and confirms the correlation between age and loss of sensitivity, more accentuated for higher frequency tones. A strong loss of sensitivity was observed after the decade of 60 years old.

Introdução: Os pacientes com distúrbios temporomandibulares apresentam frequentemente sintomas otológicos que muitas vezes dificultam o diagnóstico e atrasam a observação do paciente pelo médico dentista. Embora os mecanismos envolvidos neste processo ainda não estejam suficientemente esclarecidos, a proximidade estrutural do aparelho auditivo e da articulação temporomandibular justifica em parte esta condição. Objetivo: Esta investigação tem como objetivo principal procurar uma relação entre os distúrbios temporomandibulares e os principais sintomas auditivos. Materiais e Métodos: Trata-se de um estudo observacional transversal, com um momento único de observação. Cada paciente que consente participar neste estudo é observado pela investigadora que recolhe dados através de uma ficha individual com anamnese e análise clínica. São recolhidos os dados pessoais do paciente e respetiva história médico-dentária, seguidos de análise intra-oral e exame físico. Para avaliação dos distúrbios temporomandibulares são utilizados o índice de Fonseca, o índice de Helkimo e o eixo I do RDC/DTM. Os dados recolhidos são introduzidos e analisados no programa SPSS para um limiar de significância estatística de 5%. Resultados: A presença de distúrbios temporomandibulares segundo as três ferramentas de diagnóstico usadas (índice de Fonseca, índice de Helkimo e eixo I do RDC/DTM) foi de 64,71%, 79,41% e 35,29% respetivamente. Houve uma associação estatisticamente significativa entre as três ferramentas. O número de hábitos teve uma associação significativa com os distúrbios temporomandibulares. As queixas ou os sintomas auditivos mais referidos foram a perda auditiva e o zumbido. A otalgia e a hipoacusia foram os sintomas otológicos com relação significativa com os distúrbios temporomandibulares. A hipoacusia teve uma relação significativa com o número de hábitos parafuncionais. Conclusão: Os únicos sintomas auditivos que tiveram uma relação estatisticamente significativa com a presença de distúrbios temporomandibulares, foram a otalgia e a hipoacusia. O que mostra a relação existente entre a presença de distúrbios temporomandibulares e sintomas otológicos.

Abstract External ear melanoma is rare, and early diagnosis and treatment are paramount for the patient's survival. Four clinical cases are reported, emphasizing the importance of the routine clinical examination of the ears in the dermatological consultation. The study included male and female patients, aged 60 to 81 years old, with melanocytic lesions in the outer ear, evaluated with detailed physical and dermoscopic examination, leading to the identification of lesions suggestive of melanoma. The cases were treated surgically with excision of the lesion, and the diagnoses were confirmed by histopathological study. The therapeutic approach was instituted early as most cases were diagnosed at an early stage, which directly impacted global survival.