Translation and Adaptation of the Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire in Hindi: A Health-Related Quality of Life Questionnaire for Adults with Cochlear Implants.

Nijmegen Cochlear Implant Questionnaire is an HRQoL tool that was developed by Dutch researchers to assess the QoL in adult CI users in the English language. It is used to measure the impact of the use of CI on the daily life situations of its users, on the perception of speech sounds, and on the cost-benefit assessment CI in adult CI users. There is no specific instrument available to assess the QoL in adult CI users in India, hence there was a need to take up this study. The primary aim of the study was to adapt and translate NCIQ into Hindi with a secondary aim to describe the effect of CI on quality of life in adult CI users. For translation, permission was taken from the authors of the original tool. The Forward-backward translation method was utilized for translation. The final version of the NCIQ-H was administered to the study participants (25 no.) 25, aged 18-60 years; High School as the minimum level of education; post-lingual hearing impairment, and CI use ≥ 12 months. The Cronbach's α coefficient was calculated for all domains and subdomains in the NCIQ-H showed the overall reliability of the questionnaire (0.82), showing good internal consistency. The CI users reported high scores across all the domains indicating improved quality of life. No significant correlation was found between the CI usage time and NCIQ scores on Spearman's correlation test. Also, there was no significant difference in NCIQ-H scores between genders on the Kruskal-Wallis test. The NCIQ (H) can be used to assess QoL in adults with cochlear implants. The scores suggest improvement in physical, social and psychological domains of life. No correlation was observed between the NCIQ-H scores and duration of CI usage as well as with gender differences.

Association of Chronic Subjective Tinnitus with Neuro- Cognitive Performance.

INTRODUCTION: Chronic subjective tinnitus is associated with cognitive disruptions affecting perception, thinking, language, reasoning, problem solving, memory, visual tasks (reading) and attention. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate existence of any association between tinnitus parameters and neuropsychological performance to explain cognitive processing. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Study design was prospective, consisting 25 patients with idiopathic chronic subjective tinnitus and gave informed consent before planning their treatment. Neuropsychological profile included (i) performance on verbal information, comprehension, arithmetic and digit span; (ii) non-verbal performance for visual pattern completion analogies; (iii) memory performance for long-term, recent, delayed-recall, immediate-recall, verbal-retention, visualretention, visual recognition; (iv) reception, interpretation and execution for visual motor gestalt. Correlation between tinnitus onset duration/ loudness perception with neuropsychological profile was assessed by calculating Spearman's coefficient. RESULTS: Findings suggest that tinnitus may interfere with cognitive processing especially performance on digit span, verbal comprehension, mental balance, attention & concentration, immediate recall, visual recognition and visual-motor gestalt subtests. Negative correlation between neurocognitive tasks with tinnitus loudness and onset duration indicated their association. Positive correlation between tinnitus and visual-motor gestalt performance indicated the brain dysfunction. CONCLUSION: Tinnitus association with non-auditory processing of verbal, visual and visuo-spatial information suggested neuroplastic changes that need to be targeted in cognitive rehabilitation.

Correlation of tinnitus loudness and onset duration with audiological profile indicating variation in prognosis.

Purpose. Subjective tinnitus has different forms and degrees of severity. Many studies in the literature have assessed psychoacoustic characteristics of tinnitus but hardly any of them had focused on the association of audiological profile with onset duration and loudness perception. The aim of this study was to evaluate existence of any association between tinnitus loudness/onset duration and audiological profile to explain differences in prognosis. Method. Study design was prospective. The sample consisted of 26 subjects having tinnitus, which was divided into tinnitus and nontinnitus ears. Audiological profile included pure-tone audiometry, speech audiometry, tympanometry, acoustic reflex test, and auditory evoked potentials (early and middle latency). Unpaired t-test was applied to compare two subgroups. Correlation and association between tinnitus onset duration/loudness perception and audiological profile were also assessed by calculating Spearman's coefficient and Fischer exact value. Results. The two subgroups had significant differences for pure-tone and speech audiometry hearing thresholds. A significant association was observed between the high frequency/extended high frequency and tinnitus loudness/onset duration. Conclusion. The changes in hearing thresholds and auditory pathway are associated with an increase in tinnitus loudness and its onset duration. This knowledge would be helpful to differentiate between severity and chronicity of the patients for planning therapeutic management and predicting prognosis.

Extended high frequency audiometry in secretory otitis media.

The objective of the present study was to determine the status of extended high frequencies in subjects with secretory otitis media. The study evaluated 30 ears of 20 subjects with secretory otitis media in the age group of 15-30 years. This data was compared with 20 ears of 10 volunteers of the same age group with clinically normal hearing. Pure tone air conduction thresholds were analyzed in three frequency groups: low frequency (LF: 0.25, 0.5, and 1 kHz), high frequency (HF: 2, 4, and 8 kHz) and extended high frequency (EHF: 10, 12, and 16 kHz). The results showed elevated extended high frequency thresholds (EHFG) as compared to control group and comparatively better thresholds at high frequencies(HFG)s as compared to low (LFG)and extended high frequencies(EHFG) in the study group. This validates the importance of including an extended high frequency audiometry in the test battery of patients with secretory otitis media.

Audiological deficits after closed head injury.

BACKGROUND: Damage to the peripheral auditory structures has long been recognized as a common component of head injury. It is estimated that a majority of patients with skull trauma have resultant hearing impairment. Damage to the peripheral and/or central auditory pathways can occur as a primary or secondary injury. Considering the high incidence of hearing loss, it was considered worthwhile to conduct an in-depth investigation by administering a comprehensive audiological test battery on head-injured patients. METHOD: The sample population consisted of 290 subjects with closed head injury (study group) and 50 subjects with otologically normal subjects (control group). The subjects in the study group were further divided into mild (n = 150), moderate (n = 100), and severe (n = 40) category on the basis of Glasgow Coma Scale score. The audiological assessment consisted of pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry, tympanometry, acoustic reflex testing, auditory brain stem response audiometry, and middle latency response audiometry. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: It is concluded that there is higher prevalence of hearing impairment in the study group compared with control group. Majority of the patients who incur hearing loss after closed head injury have mild degree of hearing impairment. A significant difference between the study and control group observed on majority of the auditory brain stem response and middle latency response parameters studied.