Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
School of Electrical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, Korea.
Sci Rep. 2018 Feb 26;8(1):3645. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-21754-7.
The goal of this study was to develop an objective and neurophysiologic method of identifying the presence of cochlear dead region (CDR) by combining acoustic change complex (ACC) responses with threshold-equalizing noise (TEN) test. The goal of the first study was to confirm whether ACC could be evoked with TEN stimuli and to also optimize the test conditions. The goal of the second study was to determine whether the TEN-ACC test is capable of detecting CDR(s). The ACC responses were successfully recorded from all study participants. Both behaviorally and electrophysiologically obtained masked thresholds (TEN threshold and TEN-ACC threshold) were similar and below 10 and 12 dB SNR in NH listeners, respectively. HI listeners were divided into HI (non-CDR) and CDR groups based on the behavioral TEN test. For the non-CDR group, TEN-ACC thresholds were below 12 dB which were similar to NH listeners. However, for the CDR group, TEN-ACC thresholds were significantly higher (≥12 dB SNR) than those in the NH and HI groups, indicating that CDR(s) can be objectively detected using the ACC. Results of this study demonstrate that it is possible to detect the presence of CDR using an electrophysiologic method.
本研究旨在通过将声导纳复合波（ACC）反应与阈值均衡噪声（TEN）测试相结合，开发一种客观的神经生理学方法来识别耳蜗死区（CDR）的存在。第一个研究的目的是证实 TEN 刺激是否可以诱发 ACC，同时优化测试条件。第二个研究的目的是确定 TEN-ACC 测试是否能够检测到 CDR。所有研究参与者均成功记录到 ACC 反应。在 NH 听力正常者中，无论是行为还是电生理获得的掩蔽阈值（TEN 阈值和 TEN-ACC 阈值）均相似，分别低于 10 和 12 dB SNR。根据行为 TEN 测试，将 HI 听力损失者分为 HI（非 CDR）和 CDR 组。对于非 CDR 组，TEN-ACC 阈值低于 12 dB，与 NH 听力正常者相似。然而，对于 CDR 组，TEN-ACC 阈值明显高于 NH 和 HI 组（≥12 dB SNR），表明可以使用 ACC 客观地检测到 CDR。本研究的结果表明，使用电生理方法检测 CDR 的存在是可能的。
