Establishing New Pediatric Thresholds for Digits-In-Noise Testing
Morgan McBride1, Allyson Dunlap1, Siva Chinnadurai2,3
1University of Minnesota Medical School Minneapolis Minnesota USA.
Objective:
To determine if specific pediatric diagnostic criteria exist to determine the presence of conductive hearing loss (CHL) digits in noise (DIN) tablet testing in children.
Methods:
One hundred forty nine children aged 3-18 underwent a conventional audiogram, followed by an otolaryngologist examination and tablet-based digits in noise (DIN) testing. DIN testing consisted of diotic (same-phased stimuli) and antiphasic (out-of-phase stimuli) digits-in-noise testing on a HearX Samsung Galaxy tablet with over-the-ear headphones, for a total of 298 measurements. Children were included if they could repeat the numbers 1-10 in English, and excluded if they could not complete testing or could not tolerate ear-level examination.
Results:
The signal-to-noise ratios of all participants were correlated with the hearing diagnosis determined by sound booth audiometric evaluation. Two unique parameters were identified that allowed us to identify conductive hearing loss (CHL) in the pediatric population with a high positive predictive value (76% and 95%) and acceptable specificity (81% and 98%), but poor sensitivity (39% and 22%).
Conclusion:
Pediatric DIN testing did not delineate CHL from NH as cleanly as adult data. Trends were noted, but improvements need to be made to sensitivity prior to utilizing DIN as a screening tool for pediatric CHL.
Level Of Evidence:
2.
