Relationship of a Nonspeech Auditory Test With Speech Recognition Performance in Adult Cochlear Implant Candidates:...

It is difficult for professionals to feel confident when referring patients for cochlear implant (CI) candidacy evaluations, as eligibility is largely determined by speech recognition measures that are typically unavailable before formal assessment. The Spectral-Temporally Modulated Ripple Test (SMRT) is an automated psychoacoustic measure that could be administered in audiology clinics before CI referral and may aid in identifying likely CI candidates. This study evaluated the relationship between aided SMRT performance and aided speech recognition in adult CI candidates.

Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data.

Tertiary academic medical center.

Twenty-five adult, native English-speaking CI candidates.

Diagnostic and research testing before cochlear implantation.

Aided SMRT scores obtained in a research setting using participants' own device(s) (everyday listening configuration) were correlated (Spearman) with bilateral and unilateral aided speech recognition scores collected during the clinical CI evaluation, including Consonant-Nucleus-Consonant (CNC) word recognition and AzBio sentence recognition in quiet and noise.

Significant correlations were observed between laboratory SMRT scores and all clinical unilateral (ear to be implanted) best-aided speech recognition measures (CNC: n=25, ρ=0.54, P =0.006; AzBio quiet: n=25, ρ=0.59, P =0.002; AzBio noise: n=11, ρ=0.72, P =0.012). Significant correlations were also observed between laboratory SMRT and clinical bilateral best-aided speech recognition in quiet (CNC: n=25, ρ=0.50, P =0.01; AzBio: n=25, ρ=0.53, P =0.007), but not with bilateral AzBio speech recognition in noise (n=18, ρ=0.28, P =0.26).

SMRT performance in everyday listening configuration correlates with unilateral best-aided speech recognition in quiet and noise in the ear to be implanted in adult CI candidates. These findings set the stage for future work to investigate if SMRT, alone or in combination with other metrics, can be used to predict CI candidacy versus noncandidacy.