Audiometry, Speech ; Humans ; Language

OBJECTIVETo assess the rhythmic and timbral perception ability in musical activities for postlingually deafened adult cochlear implant users.

METHODSTwelve normal-hearing and 12 adult cochlear implant users were recruited in this study. Rhythm discrimination, instrument identification, and instrument number detection measurements in Musical Sounds in Cochlear Implants (MuSIC) test battery were used to assess the rhythmic and timbral perception ability for both normal-hearing and cochlear implant users.

RESULTSCochlear implant subjects achieved 84.4% correct in rhythm discrimination test on average, which was not significantly different from the performance of normal-hearing subjects (85.1%) (t = 0.116, P > 0.05). The average score of instrument identification and instrument number detection test for cochlear implant subjects were 72.3% and 39.2%, respectively. The performance of cochlear implant subjects in both of two tests were significantly poorer than those of normal-hearing subjects with 88.3% and 73.5% correct, respectively (t = 2.498 and 4.673, P < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONPostlingually deafened cochlear implant subjects, on average, performed significantly poorer in timbral perception tasks relative to normal hearing subjects, while close to the ability of normal hearing subjects in rhythmic perception.

Adolescent ; Adult ; Auditory Perception ; Case-Control Studies ; Cochlear Implantation ; Cochlear Implants ; Deafness ; rehabilitation ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Music ; Perception ; Periodicity ; Pitch Perception ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVETo study how to perform the hearing screening on the infants in the rural area.

METHODSThree thousand nine hundreds and twenty-two infants, about 84% of them from rural, were born in the People Hospital of LaiZhou City from January to December in 2004. The infants were performed fast hearing screening by transient evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) after the birth in 2-7 days. The fail cases were checked again after 4-6 weeks, and then were diagnosed if they still failed after following-up.

RESULTSThe infants (3612/3922, 92.1%) have been checked by TEOAE, and the examination was free in the poverty cases. The rate passed on the first check was 69.96% (2527/3922), but 1085 infants failed (30.4%), while 310 infants have not been checked (7.9%). In the 1085 cases that should be rechecked, there was only 633 cases (58.34%) accepted the check on time, while 452 cases (41.66%) missed. In the 163 cases with high-risk infants in 2004, 114 infants (69.96%) were checked, but 49 infants (29.04%) were not checked. Fourteen cases failed in the recheck, and 11 of them were checked by ABR. Two cases were found to be moderate and severe hearing loss in binaural respectively and 4 cases with mild hearing loss in monaural while 3 cases were normal.

CONCLUSIONSIt is necessary and viable for the infants on hearing screening in the rural area It should be set up and perfected the model for infants on hearing screening in rural area as soon as possible; it should be free for the poor infants to make sure everyone enjoy the health care.

China ; Hearing Tests ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Neonatal Screening ; methods ; Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous ; Rural Population

OBJECTIVETo study the audiological characteristics of newborns and infants who failed hearing screening.

METHODSOne hundred and six infants failed hearing screening received follow-up study with routine audiological evaluations (auditory brainstem response, distortion product otoacoustic emission, tympanometry and visual reinforcement audiometry).

RESULTSSixty-five infants (61.3%) of this group were normal hearing subjects and 39(36. 8% ) of the infants had hearing loss. Two cases (1.9%) received follow-up by phone. Fifteen cases (14.2%) with conductive hearing loss and 24 cases (22.6%) with sensorineural hearing loss. Thirteen (12.3%), 14 (13.2%), 6 (5.7%), and 6 (5.7%) cases were found to be mild, moderate, severe and profound hearing loss respectively. Diagnosis of hearing loss in the thirty-nine infants conducted a prevalence of 0.264% (39/14 785) of congenital hearing loss (both binaural and monaural). The hearing level of those cases with severe and profound hearing loss basically did not change, but that of cases with mild and moderate hearing loss changed.

CONCLUSIONSEarly identification and intervention of infants with severe and profound hearing loss by 6 months of age were successful. Infants with mild and moderate hearing loss should be followed up to six or eight months and received routine audiologic evaluations.

Audiometry, Evoked Response ; China ; Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem ; Female ; Follow-Up Studies ; Hearing Loss ; diagnosis ; epidemiology ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Neonatal Screening ; Prevalence

OBJECTIVETo investigate the children with hearing loss from the age 0 to 6, and discuss the found age, found way and audiological characteristics.

METHODSGeneral information of found age and found way of 265 children, were investigated with self-made questionnaire and routine audiological evaluations, and then made statistical analysis.

RESULTSThe average (x +/- s) found age for the children with hearing loss was (23.21 +/- 10.02) months, and the first average coming age was (28.01 +/- 13.41) months. The found age of girls [(27.11 +/- 13.13) months] was 6.1 months later than the boys' [(21.03 +/- 12.32) months] and the countryside children [(28.27 +/- 11.09) months] later than the city's [(19.52 +/- 13.05) months] 8.65 months in the average found age. The found age of children who were found with speech disability was later than others. As the hearing loss degree of children went milder, the found age might later.

CONCLUSIONSThe popularization of knowledge in preventing from hearing loss must be strengthened. It is also necessary to popularize newborn hearing screening and early intervention while to enhance the parents' consciousness.

Child ; Child, Preschool ; Female ; Hearing Loss ; diagnosis ; prevention & control ; Hearing Tests ; Humans ; Infant ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Mass Screening ; Surveys and Questionnaires

Background: The development of auditory and speech perception ability of children with hearing loss is affected by many factors after they undergo cochlear implantation (CI). Age at CI (CI age) appears to play an important role among these factors. This study aimed to evaluate the development of auditory and speech perception ability and explore the impact of CI age on children with prelingual deafness present before 3 years of age. Methods: Two hundred and seventy-eight children with pre-lingual deafness (176 boys and 102 girls) were included in this study, and the CI age ranged from 6 to 36 months (mean age, 19 months). Categorical auditory performance (CAP) was assessed to evaluate auditory ability, and the speech intelligibility rating was used to evaluate speech intelligibility. The evaluations were performed before CI and 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, and 60 months after CI. Results: The auditory ability of the pre-lingually hearing-impaired children showed the fastest development within 6 months after CI (k = 0.524, t = 30.992, P < 0.05); then, the progress started to decelerate (k = 0.14, t = 3.704, P < 0.05) and entered a plateau at the 24th month (k = 0.03, t = 1.908, P < 0.05). Speech intelligibility showed the fastest improvement between the 12th and 24th months after CI (k = 0.138, t = 5.365, P < 0.05); then, the progress started to decelerate (k = 0.026, t = 1.465, P < 0.05) and entered a plateau at the 48th month (k = 0.012, t = 1.542, P < 0.05). The CI age had no statistical significant effect on the auditory and speech abilities starting at 2 years after CI (P < 0.05). The optimal cutoff age for CI was 15 months. Conclusions Within 5 years after CI, the auditory and speech ability of young hearing-impaired children continuously improved, although speech development lagged behind that of hearing. An earlier CI age is recommended; the optimal cutoff age for CI is at 15 months.