Resumo

FONSECA, Bruna Basso et al. Remote diagnosis of oral lesions with smartphone photos. Rev. Assoc. Paul. Cir. Dent. [online]. 2016, vol.70, n.1, pp. 52-57. ISSN 0004-5276.

To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy between presential assessments of oral lesions and the diagnostic hypothesis proposed at distance with the use of a sample of photographs obtained with a smartphone. The study had a cross-sectional observational design with a convenience sample. The data were collected at the oral medicine oupatient clinic of Federal University of Paraná. They were obtained from clinical oral examination, a brief clinical history and photographic record of oral lesions taken with a smartphone camera. The participants were all the patients with oral lesions visible to inspection. The clinical information and the photographs of were sent by email for two remote consultants, who were solicited to formulate a maximum of two diagnostic hypotheses for each case. The diagnostic hypotheses formulated by the remote consultant were compared to the gold standard in each clinical case and measured by the kappa coefficient. The sample was composed by 42 photographs of oral lesions obtained from 23 patients. In 91% and 87% of the cases, there was agreement from distant diagnosis when compared to the gold standard for consultants 1 and 2, respectively. The concordance obtained between the diagnostic hypotheses and the gold standard was considered "excellent" according to the values of kappa index (K = 0,864 - 0,909). The diagnosis of oral lesions through images obtained with a smartphone showed good diagnostic accuracy and was comparable to that obtained in person. It can be suggested as an auxiliary tool in refererring cases from primary to secondary care in oral medicine.

Palavras-chave : telemedicine; oral medicine; oral manifestations; cellular phone..