J Am Acad Audiol
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Comparative Study
Speech understanding using surgical masks: a problem in health care?
Successful communication is necessary in health-care environments. Yet the presence of noise in hospitals, operating rooms, and dental offices may have a deleterious effect on health-care personnel and patients understanding messages accurately. The presence of a surgical mask and hearing loss may further affect speech perception. ⋯ These findings suggest that the presence of a surgical mask did not negatively affect speech understanding. However, the presence of noise did have a deleterious effect on speech perception and warrants further attention in health-care environments.
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It is a common occurrence in the balance function laboratory to evaluate patients in the post-acute period following unilateral vestibular system impairment. It is important to be able to differentiate spontaneous nystagmus (SN) emanating from peripheral vestibular system impairments from asymmetric gaze-evoked nystagmus (GEN) that originates from central ocular motility impairment. ⋯ Although nystagmus following AL usually occurs in acute peripheral vestibular system impairment, it can occur in cases of central eye movement impairment. The key element is whether the SN that follows AL is attenuated or augmented in the vision-denied condition. The SN from a unilateral peripheral vestibular system impairment should augment in the vision denied condition. An asymmetric GEN will either not augment, decrease in magnitude, or disappear entirely, in the vision-denied condition.
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The Speech Recognition in Noise Test (SPRINT) is a word-recognition instrument that presents the 200 Northwestern University Auditory Test No. 6 (NU-6) words binaurally at 50 dB HL in a multitalker babble at a 9 dB signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) (Cord et al, 1992). The SPRINT was developed by and used by the Army as a more valid predictor of communication abilities (than pure-tone thresholds or word-recognition in quiet) for issues involving fitness for duty from a hearing perspective of Army personnel. The Words-in-Noise test (WIN) is a slightly different word-recognition task in a fixed level multitalker babble with 10 NU-6 words presented at each of 7 S/N from 24 to 0 dB S/N in 4 dB decrements (Wilson, 2003; Wilson and McArdle, 2007). For the two instruments, both the babble and the speakers of the words are different. The SPRINT uses all 200 NU-6 words, whereas the WIN uses a maximum of 70 words. ⋯ Graphically and numerically the SPRINT and WIN were highly related, which is indicative of good concurrent validity of the SPRINT.
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Anecdotal evidence suggests that hearing loss interferes with the enjoyment of music, although it is not known how widespread this problem currently is. ⋯ Although new hearing aid technologies have somewhat reduced problems of music enjoyment experienced by hearing-impaired people, audiologists should be aware that some 25-30% of patients may have difficulties with listening to music and may require extra attention to minimize those problems.
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The Listening in Spatialized Noise--Sentences test (LISN-S) is a revised version of the Listening in Spatialized Noise (Continuous Discourse) test (LISN; Cameron et al, 2006a). The software produces a three-dimensional auditory environment under headphones and was developed to assess auditory stream segregation skills in children. A simple repetition response protocol is utilized to determine speech reception thresholds (SRTs) for sentences presented from 0 degree azimuth in competing speech. The competing speech is manipulated with respect to its location in auditory space (0 degree vs. + and -90 degrees azimuth) and the vocal quality of the speaker(s) (same as, or different to, the speaker of the target stimulus). Performance is measured as two SRT and three advantage measures. The advantage measures represent the benefit in dB gained when either talker, spatial, or both talker and spatial cues combined are incorporated in the maskers. ⋯ The study supports the hypothesis that a high proportion of children with suspected (C)APD have a deficit in the mechanisms that normally use the spatial distribution of sources to suppress unwanted signals. The LISN-S is a potentially valuable assessment tool for assessing auditory stream segregation deficits, and is sensitive in differentiating various forms of auditory streaming.