Haihong Liu

The effects of age at cochlear implantation and hearing aid trial on auditory performance of Chinese infants

Abstract Conclusion: Most of the infants demonstrated rapid improvement in the three different auditory skills within the first year after switch-on. Infants undergoing hearing aid trial and habilitation demonstrated a significant positive effect on the development of auditory skills in comparison with infants without trial and habilitation. Objective: This paper aims to evaluate the auditory performance of infants of different age at cochlear implantation, emphasize the importance of the hearing aid trial and habilitation before implant, and provide baseline data of auditory development. Methods: In all, 259 infants with prelingually profound hearing loss participated in this study. The Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (IT-MAIS) was used to assess auditory skills in infants at different intervals. Results: The mean scores for the auditory skills improved significantly over time. The mean scores of three skills for each group at each interval were significantly different. The mean scores of the auditory skills were significantly superior for infants undergoing hearing aid trial and habilitation in comparison with those of infants without hearing aid trial and habilitation.

Longitudinal performance of spoken word perception in Mandarin pediatric cochlear implant users.

OBJECTIVE The objective of the present study was to investigate the longitudinal performance on open-set word perception in Mandarin children with cochlear implants (CIs). METHODS Prospective cohort study. One hundred and five prelingually deaf children implanted with CIs participated in the study. The Standard-Chinese Version of Monosyllabic Lexical Neighborhood Test (LNT) and Multisyllabic Lexical Neighborhood Test (MLNT) were used as open-set word perception evaluation tools. Evaluations were administrated at 6, 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, and 84 months post CI stimulation, respectively. RESULTS (1) Spoken word perception performance of congenitally deaf children with CIs improved significantly over time. (2) The fastest improvement occurred in the first 36 months after initial activation, then the improvement slowed down and the final peak score of 81.7% correct was achieved at 72 months after initial activation. (3) Early implanted children exhibited better longitudinal performance. (4) Lexical factors affected consistently in each evaluation session. For lexically harder words, such as monosyllabic hard words, there was substantial room for improvement even after long-term use of CI. CONCLUSIONS (1) CI continuously provided significant benefits in word perception to children with severe/profound sensorineural hearing loss. (2) Age at implantation and Mandarin lexical factor affected longitudinal performance significantly.

The development of auditory skills in infants with isolated Large Vestibular Aqueduct Syndrome after cochlear implantation

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate the auditory performance of infants with isolated Large Vestibular Aqueduct Syndrome (LVAS) after cochlear implantation, compare their performance with those of infants with a normal inner ear, and establish a database of auditory development. METHOD 435 infants with congenital severe to profound hearing loss participated in this study. 62 infants in group A were diagnosed with isolated LVAS. 373 infants in group B had a normal inner ear. Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (IT-MAIS) was used to evaluate the development of auditory skills. RESULTS The mean scores for auditory ability showed no significant difference between groups A and B. The mean scores for the three different auditory skills increased significantly over time. The differences were statistically significant in mean scores among the three different auditory skills for group B. CONCLUSION Auditory skills of infants with isolated LVAS developed rapidly after cochlear implantation, in a similar manner to those of infants with a normal inner ear. Cochlear implantation is an effective interventional approach and an established therapeutic option for infants with isolated LVAS.

Deafness gene mutations in newborns in Beijing.

ABSTRACT Objective To determine the incidence of congenital hearing loss (HL) in newborns by the rate of deafness-related genetic mutations. Design Clinical study of consecutive newborns in Beijing using allele-specific polymerase chain reaction-based universal array. Study sample This study tested 37 573 newborns within 3 days after birth, including nine sites in four genes: GJB2 (35 del G, 176 del 16, 235 del C, 299 del AT), SLC26A4 (IVS7-2 A > G, 2168 A > G), MTRNR1 (1555 A > G, 1494 C > T), and GJB3 (538 C > T). The birth condition of infants was also recorded. Results Of 37 573 newborns, 1810 carried pathogenic mutations, or 4.817%. The carrier rates of GJB2 (35 del G, 176 del 16, 235 del C, 299 del AT), GJB3 (538 C > T), SLC26A4 (IVS7-2 A > G, 2168 A > G), and MTRNR1 (1555 A > G, 1494 C > T) mutations were 0.005%, 0.104%, 1.924%, 0.551%, 0.295%, 0.253%, 1.387%, 0.024%, and 0.274%, respectively. Logistic regression analysis indicated no statistically significant relationship between mutations and infant sex, premature delivery, twin status, or birth weight. Conclusions The 235delC GJB2 mutation was the most frequent deafness-related mutation in the Chinese population. Genetic screening for the deafness gene will help detect more cases of newborn congenital HL than current screening practices.

Psychometric properties of the Standard-Chinese lexical neighborhood test.

Abstract Conclusion: The psychometric characteristics of Standard-Chinese lexical neighborhood test (LNT) confirmed the lexical effects of the four word categories. The established normative baseline can be used in evaluating the word-recognition performance of the hearing-impaired listeners. Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to examine the psychometric characteristics and evaluate the reliability of Standard-Chinese LNT in children and adults. Methods: Twenty-six normal-hearing adults and 13 normal-hearing children were recruited. Word recognition was tested with the Standard-Chinese LNT materials that consisted of four types of word list: monosyllable easy words, monosyllable hard words, disyllable easy words, and disyllable hard words. Results: The thresholds at 50% correct performance for the easy word lists and disyllable word lists were lower than those for the hard word lists and monosyllable word lists, respectively (all p < 0.001). The slopes for disyllable words were steeper than the monosyllable words (p < 0.05). In addition, the recognition threshold of the four categories for children was higher than that for adults (all p < 0.05). The critical difference was on average 26.6% for adults and 30.0% for children.

The effectiveness of sound-processing strategies on tonal language cochlear implant users: A systematic review

Contemporary cochlear implants (CIs) are well established as a technology for people with severe‐to‐profound sensorineural hearing loss, with their effectiveness having been widely reported. However, for tonal language CI recipients, speech perception remains a challenge: Conventional signal processing strategies have been demonstrated to possibly provide insufficient information to encode tonal cues, and CI recipients have exhibited considerable deficits in tone perception. Thus, some tonal language–oriented sound‐processing strategies have been introduced. The effects of available tonal language–oriented strategies on tone perception are reviewed and evaluated in this study. The results may aid in designing and improving tonal language–appropriate sound‐processing strategies for CI recipients.

Effect of Adaptive Compression and Fast-Acting WDRC Strategies on Sentence Recognition in Noise in Mandarin-Speaking Pediatric Hearing Aid Users

BACKGROUND Wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) has been widely used in hearing aid technology. However, several reports indicate that WDRC may improve audibility at the expense of speech intelligibility. As such, a modified amplification compression scheme, named adaptive compression, was developed. However, the effect of compression strategies on speech perception in pediatric hearing aid users has not been clearly reported. PURPOSE The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of adaptive compression and fast-acting WDRC processing strategies on sentence recognition in noise with Mandarin, pediatric hearing aid users. RESEARCH DESIGN This study was set up using a double-blind, within-subject, repeated-measures design. STUDY SAMPLE Twenty-six children who spoke Mandarin Chinese as their primary language and had bilateral sensorineural hearing loss participated in the study. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Sentence recognition in noise was evaluated in behind-the-ear technology with both adaptive compression processing and fast-acting WDRC processing and was selected randomly for each child. Percent correct sentence recognition in noise with fast-acting WDRC and adaptive compression was collected from each participant. Correlation analysis was performed to examine the effect of gender, age at assessment, and hearing threshold of the better ear on signal-to-noise ratio, and a paired-samples t test was employed to compare the performance of the adaptive compression strategy and fast-acting WDRC processing. RESULTS The mean percentage correct of sentence recognition in noise with behind-the-ear technology with fast-acting WDRC and adaptive compression processing were 62.24% and 68.71%, respectively. The paired-samples t test showed that the performance of the adaptive compression strategy was significantly better than the fast-acting WDRC processing (t = 3.190, p = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS Compared with the fast-acting WDRC, adaptive compression provided better sentence recognition in noise for Mandarin pediatric hearing aid users.

CO2 laser cauterization approach to congenital pyriform sinus fistula

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy of CO2 laser cauterization with suspension microlaryngoscopy as a definitive surgical treatment for pediatric Congenital Pyriform Sinus Fistula (CPSF). MATERIAL AND METHODS This is a cohort retrospective study. Thyroid function and cervical ultrasonography examinations were performed before operation. Enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed on patients with a repeated infection (≥2 times) and/or if they had a prior open surgery. Patients were divided into two groups: the <8-year-old group and the ≥8-year-old group. The differences in the number of cauterization procedures between the two age groups and between the initial treatment and the retreatment groups were analyzed. RESULTS CO2 laser cauterizations with suspension microlaryngoscopy were performed for 104 CPSF patients. No complications occurred. Three patients had a recurrence in the follow-up. The number of surgical cauterization operations was fewer than 3 in 85.1% of the patients. There was no significant difference in the number of cauterizations among the different age groups or between the initial treatment and retreatment groups (P>0.05). CONCLUSION CO2 laser cauterization with suspension microlaryngoscopy is a safe, effective, and minimally invasive approach to CPSF with optimal patient outcomes. TYPE OF STUDY Treatment Study. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Level III.