The characteristics of monosyllable recognition in Mandarin-speaking patients with auditory neuropathy

Abstract

Background: A set of Chinese Mandarin monosyllable test lists has been widely used in clinical diagnosis, while the performance of the Mandarin-speaking patients with auditory neuropathy (AN) in the monosyllable tests was still unknown.

Objectives: To analyze the characteristics of monosyllable recognition in Mandarin-speaking patients with AN.

Materials and methods: Nineteen Mandarin-speaking patients diagnosed with AN were recruited to obtain the performance-intensity (P-I) functions. They were divided into two paired groups according to two conditions: (1) the rising-slope (RS) and the non-rising-slope pattern (NRS) group for the audiogram; or (2) the male and the female group for gender.

Results: The performance at 20 and 30 dB SL showed negative correlation with the pure tone-averaged thresholds of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 kHz (4FA). We found significant differences between the P-I functions of the RS and the NRS group, and surprisingly found that between the male and female as well although there was no difference in 4FA between the paired groups. A notable rollover phenomenon in P-I functions was detected in each group.

Conclusions: The monosyllable recognition scores of Mandarin-speaking AN patients showed numerous particular characteristics reflected by P-I functions. Acquiring the complete P-I functions at multiple presentation levels and the rollover index may give us more information about the diagnosis and prognosis.

Chinese abstract

背景：一套汉语普通话单音节测试表已广泛应用于临床诊断, 而汉语为母语的听神经疾病患者在单音节测试中的表现尚不清楚。

目的：分析听神经疾病患者的汉语单音节识别的特点。

材料与方法：选择19例确诊为AN的华语患者, 进行表现-强度（P-I）机能测试。按以下两种情况分为两个对子组：（1）按听力图分为上升斜率（RS）组和非上升斜率模式（NRS）组；或（2）按性别分为男性和女性组。

结果：在20和30 dB SL时的表现出与纯音平均阈值0.5、1.0、2.0和4.0 kHz（4FA）呈负相关。我们发现RS组和NRS组的P-I机能有显著差异。令人惊讶的是, 在男性和女性之间, P-I功能有显著差异, 尽管配对组之间的4FA没有差异。各组P-I作用均出现明显的侧翻现象。

结论：普通话AN患者的单音节识别得分表现出许多P-I机能所反映的特征。获得多个表现水平的完整P-I机能和侧翻指数可以为我们提供更多的诊断和预后信息。

Keywords:

• Auditory neuropathy
• Mandarin monosyllable recognition test
• performance intensity function
• rollover

Acknowledgements

We sincerely appreciate the participants in this study for their unselfish cooperation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was declared by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from Key International (Regional) Joint Research Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC#81820108009), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC #81670940, #81770991) and Special Cultivating and Developing Program of Beijing Science and Technology Innovation Base (z151100001615050), the Youth Cultivation Project of Military Medical Science (16QNP133); Medical big data research and development project of PLA general hospital (2018MBD-015) and the capital health research and development of special project (2016-1-5014). These played role of the funding body in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data.