AUTOMATED ELECTROPHYSIOLOGIC HEARING SCREENING DEVICE

应用听性脑干反应测试新生儿和婴儿听力 (ABR)已经获得了广泛的认可， 其他不太准确的技术。 ABR的强度是直接衡量 听觉功能，导致高测试特异性和灵敏度。 然而，由于专业人员的限制，ABF的临床应用仍然有限。 现有设备的劳动密集型操作。 需要进行广泛 测试期间和之后的专业干预导致了有限的使用 从而导致ABR装置的低产量和高单位成本。 克服ABR听力测试的实际缺点的一种方法是 开发自动化设备， 在短暂的测试期间。 拟议工作的总体目标是 第一阶段是开发自动测试和分析的方法， 听觉脑干反应 这些方法将实时操作， 实现预期的测量目标，满足人类需求 干预：（1）丢弃不期望的来源的响应， (2)识别相关波形;（3）对波形进行整体分析 从而提供有效和准确的听力阈值。 因此，我们认为， 在第一阶段，将从婴儿和 成人和用于评估有效和敏感的技术， 分析和阈值检测。 这些技术将用于 设计一种具有成本效益的基于微机的自动化装置。

Hearing testing of newborns and infants using auditory brainstem responses (ABR) has gained widespread acceptance and has come to be preferred over other less accurate techniques. ABR's strength is is direct measurement of auditory function which results in high test specificity and sensitivity. Clinical use of ABF, however, is still limited because of the professional labor intensive operation of existing devices. The need for extensive professional intervention during and after testing has led to limited use and consequently low production and high unit cost of ABR devices. One method of overcoming the practical drawbacks of ABR hearing testing is to develop automated devices which require minimal human intervention during a short testing period. The overall aim of the proposed work in phase I is to develop methods for automatic testing and analysis of auditory brainstem responses. Such methods would operate in real-time to achieve a desired measurement goal and obviate the need for human intervention for (1) discarding responses of undesired origin, (2)\recognizing the relevant waveforms, (3) and analyzing the overall results to provide efficient and accurate hearing thresholds. Therefore, during Phase I, APR responses will be collected from both infants and adults and used to evaluate efficient and sensitive techniques for signal analysis and thereshold detection. These techniques will then be used for the design of a cost-efficient automated microcomputer-based device.