Bovo Roberto, Prosser Silvano, Ortore Rocco Pio, Martini Alessandro
Department of Audiology, University of Ferrara, Italy.
Acta Otolaryngol. 2011 Jun;131(6):633-9. doi: 10.3109/00016489.2010.544675. Epub 2011 Jan 31.
We question the justification for the cost of a surgically implanted device for the restoration of limited circumstances of audible communication, although we understand that the decision is taken depending on the social relevance of communication or personal criteria.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the BAHA simulator (BAHAS) system in subjects with acquired unilateral sensorineural hearing loss. In particular we tested the changes of speech reception threshold (SRT) in relation to different speech source positions, with a background of diffuse noise.
The primary message consisting of lists of Italian sentences was delivered from a loudspeaker placed at horizontal azimuths of 0°, 90°, 180° and 270°; the interference consisted of uncorrelated speech-shaped noise simultaneously delivered by four loudspeakers at a fixed intensity. The speech recognition tests were administered to 11 patients with BAHAS either on or off; hence each patient underwent 8 acoustic conditions (4 primary message directions × 2 BAHAS conditions). The SRT (50% correct responses) was measured by a simple 2 dB step adaptive procedure. Ten normal-hearing subjects served as the control group.
Our data demonstrated that even for the acoustic condition where BAHAS should be more useful (i.e. lateral speech toward the impaired side), it was definitely ineffective in the study conditions.
我们质疑为恢复有限的可听通信情况而使用外科植入设备的成本合理性，尽管我们理解该决定是根据通信的社会相关性或个人标准做出的。
本研究的目的是评估骨锚式助听器模拟器（BAHAS）系统对获得性单侧感音神经性听力损失患者的影响。特别是，我们在漫射噪声背景下，测试了与不同语音源位置相关的言语接受阈（SRT）的变化。
由意大利语句子列表组成的主要信息从放置在水平方位角0°、90°、180°和270°的扬声器发出；干扰由四个扬声器以固定强度同时发出的不相关的言语形状噪声组成。对11名佩戴或未佩戴BAHAS的患者进行言语识别测试；因此，每名患者接受8种声学条件（4个主要信息方向×2种BAHAS条件）。SRT（50%正确反应）通过简单的2 dB步长自适应程序测量。10名听力正常的受试者作为对照组。
我们的数据表明，即使在BAHAS应该更有用的声学条件下（即朝向受损侧的侧向言语），在研究条件下它也绝对无效。
