No evidence for a benefit from masker harmonicity in the perception of speech in noise.

When assessing the intelligibility of speech embedded in background noise, maskers with a harmonic spectral structure have been found to be much less detrimental to performance than noise-based interferers. While spectral "glimpsing" in between the resolved masker harmonics and reduced envelope modulations of harmonic maskers have been shown to contribute, this effect has primarily been attributed to the proposed ability of the auditory system to cancel harmonic maskers from the signal mixture. Here, speech intelligibility in the presence of harmonic and inharmonic maskers with similar spectral glimpsing opportunities and envelope modulation spectra was assessed to test the theory of harmonic cancellation. Speech reception thresholds obtained from normal-hearing listeners revealed no effect of masker harmonicity, neither for maskers with static nor dynamic pitch contours. The results show that harmonicity, or time-domain periodicity, as such, does not aid the segregation of speech and masker. Contrary to what might be assumed, this also implies that the saliency of the masker pitch did not affect auditory grouping. Instead, the current data suggest that the reduced masking effectiveness of harmonic sounds is due to the regular spacing of their spectral components.

Transdermal oestradiol for androgen suppression in prostate cancer: long-term cardiovascular outcomes from the randomised Prostate Adenocarcinoma Transcutaneous Hormone (PATCH) trial programme.

BACKGROUND: Androgen suppression is a central component of prostate cancer management but causes substantial long-term toxicity. Transdermal administration of oestradiol (tE2) circumvents first-pass hepatic metabolism and, therefore, should avoid the cardiovascular toxicity seen with oral oestrogen and the oestrogen-depletion effects seen with luteinising hormone releasing hormone agonists (LHRHa). We present long-term cardiovascular follow-up data from the Prostate Adenocarcinoma Transcutaneous Hormone (PATCH) trial programme. METHODS: PATCH is a seamless phase 2/3, randomised, multicentre trial programme at 52 study sites in the UK. Men with locally advanced or metastatic prostate cancer were randomly allocated (1:2 from August, 2007 then 1:1 from February, 2011) to either LHRHa according to local practice or tE2 patches (four 100 µg patches per 24 h, changed twice weekly, reducing to three patches twice weekly if castrate at 4 weeks [defined as testosterone ≤1·7 nmol/L]). Randomisation was done using a computer-based minimisation algorithm and was stratified by several factors, including disease stage, age, smoking status, and family history of cardiac disease. The primary outcome of this analysis was cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Cardiovascular events, including heart failure, acute coronary syndrome, thromboembolic stroke, and other thromboembolic events, were confirmed using predefined criteria and source data. Sudden or unexpected deaths were attributed to a cardiovascular category if a confirmatory post-mortem report was available and as other relevant events if no post-mortem report was available. PATCH is registered with the ISRCTN registry, ISRCTN70406718; the study is ongoing and adaptive. FINDINGS: Between Aug 14, 2007, and July 30, 2019, 1694 men were randomly allocated either LHRHa (n=790) or tE2 patches (n=904). Overall, median follow-up was 3·9 (IQR 2·4-7·0) years. Respective castration rates at 1 month and 3 months were 65% and 93% among patients assigned LHRHa and 83% and 93% among those allocated tE2. 157 events from 145 men met predefined cardiovascular criteria, with a further ten sudden deaths with no post-mortem report (total 167 events in 153 men). 26 (2%) of 1694 patients had fatal cardiovascular events, 15 (2%) of 790 assigned LHRHa and 11 (1%) of 904 allocated tE2. The time to first cardiovascular event did not differ between treatments (hazard ratio 1·11, 95% CI 0·80-1·53; p=0·54 [including sudden deaths without post-mortem report]; 1·20, 0·86-1·68; p=0·29 [confirmed group only]). 30 (34%) of 89 cardiovascular events in patients assigned tE2 occurred more than 3 months after tE2 was stopped or changed to LHRHa. The most frequent adverse events were gynaecomastia (all grades), with 279 (38%) events in 730 patients who received LHRHa versus 690 (86%) in 807 patients who received tE2 (p<0·0001) and hot flushes (all grades) in 628 (86%) of those who received LHRHa versus 280 (35%) who received tE2 (p<0·0001). INTERPRETATION: Long-term data comparing tE2 patches with LHRHa show no evidence of a difference between treatments in cardiovascular mortality or morbidity. Oestrogens administered transdermally should be reconsidered for androgen suppression in the management of prostate cancer. FUNDING: Cancer Research UK, and Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at University College London.

Tilt testing remains a valuable asset.

Head-up tilt test (TT) has been used for >50 years to study heart rate/blood pressure adaptation to positional changes, to model responses to haemorrhage, to assess orthostatic hypotension, and to evaluate haemodynamic and neuroendocrine responses in congestive heart failure, autonomic dysfunction, and hypertension. During these studies, some subjects experienced syncope due to vasovagal reflex. As a result, tilt testing was incorporated into clinical assessment of syncope when the origin was unknown. Subsequently, clinical experience supports the diagnostic value of TT. This is highlighted in evidence-based professional practice guidelines, which provide advice for TT methodology and interpretation, while concurrently identifying its limitations. Thus, TT remains a valuable clinical asset, one that has added importantly to the appreciation of pathophysiology of syncope/collapse and, thereby, has improved care of syncopal patients.

Spatial release of masking in children and adults in non-individualized virtual environments.

The spatial release of masking (SRM) is often measured in virtual auditory environments created from head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) of a standardized adult head. Adults and children, however, differ in head dimensions and mismatched HRTFs are known to affect some aspects of binaural hearing. So far, there has been little research on HRTFs in children and it is unclear whether a large mismatch of spatial cues can degrade speech perception in complex environments. In two studies, the effect of non-individualized virtual environments on SRM accuracy in adults and children was examined. The SRMs were measured in virtual environments created from individual and non-individualized HRTFs and the equivalent real anechoic environment. Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were measured for frontal target sentences and symmetrical speech maskers at 0° or ±90° azimuth. No significant difference between environments was observed for adults. In 7 to 12-year-old children, SRTs and SRMs improved with age, with SRMs approaching adult levels. SRTs differed slightly between environments and were significantly worse in a virtual environment based on HRTFs from a spherical head. Adult HRTFs seem sufficient to accurately measure SRTs in children even in complex listening conditions.

Incidence of cardiotoxicity and validation of the Heart Failure Association-International Cardio-Oncology Society risk stratification tool in patients treated with trastuzumab for HER2-positive early breast cancer.

PURPOSE: Trastuzumab improves survival in patients with HER2+ early breast cancer. However, cardiotoxicity remains a concern, particularly in the curative setting, and there are limited data on its incidence outside of clinical trials. We retrospectively evaluated the cardiotoxicity rates [left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) decline, congestive heart failure (CHF), cardiac death or trastuzumab discontinuation] and assessed the performance of a proposed model to predict cardiotoxicity in routine clinical practice. METHODS: Patients receiving curative trastuzumab between 2011 and 2018 were identified. Demographics, treatments, assessments and toxicities were recorded. Fisher's exact test, Chi-squared and logistic regression were used. RESULTS: 931 patients were included in the analysis. Median age was 54 years (range 24-83) and Charlson comorbidity index 0 (0-6), with 195 patients (20.9%) aged 65 or older. 228 (24.5%) were smokers. Anthracyclines were given in 608 (65.3%). Median number of trastuzumab doses was 18 (1-18). The HFA-ICOS cardiovascular risk was low in 401 patients (43.1%), medium in 454 (48.8%), high in 70 (7.5%) and very high in 6 (0.6%). Overall, 155 (16.6%) patients experienced cardiotoxicity: LVEF decline ≥ 10% in 141 (15.1%), falling below 50% in 55 (5.9%), CHF NYHA class II in 42 (4.5%) and class III-IV in 5 (0.5%) and discontinuation due to cardiac reasons in 35 (3.8%). No deaths were observed. Cardiotoxicity rates increased with HFA-ICOS score (14.0% low, 16.7% medium, 30.3% high/very high; p = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: Cardiotoxicity was relatively common (16.6%), but symptomatic heart failure on trastuzumab was rare in our cohort. The HFA-ICOS score identifies patients at high risk of cardiotoxicity.

Genetic Variants Associated With Cancer Therapy-Induced Cardiomyopathy.

BACKGROUND: Cancer therapy-induced cardiomyopathy (CCM) is associated with cumulative drug exposures and preexisting cardiovascular disorders. These parameters incompletely account for substantial interindividual susceptibility to CCM. We hypothesized that rare variants in cardiomyopathy genes contribute to CCM. METHODS: We studied 213 patients with CCM from 3 cohorts: retrospectively recruited adults with diverse cancers (n=99), prospectively phenotyped adults with breast cancer (n=73), and prospectively phenotyped children with acute myeloid leukemia (n=41). Cardiomyopathy genes, including 9 prespecified genes, were sequenced. The prevalence of rare variants was compared between CCM cohorts and The Cancer Genome Atlas participants (n=2053), healthy volunteers (n=445), and an ancestry-matched reference population. Clinical characteristics and outcomes were assessed and stratified by genotypes. A prevalent CCM genotype was modeled in anthracycline-treated mice. RESULTS: CCM was diagnosed 0.4 to 9 years after chemotherapy; 90% of these patients received anthracyclines. Adult patients with CCM had cardiovascular risk factors similar to the US population. Among 9 prioritized genes, patients with CCM had more rare protein-altering variants than comparative cohorts ( P≤1.98e-04). Titin-truncating variants (TTNtvs) predominated, occurring in 7.5% of patients with CCM versus 1.1% of The Cancer Genome Atlas participants ( P=7.36e-08), 0.7% of healthy volunteers ( P=3.42e-06), and 0.6% of the reference population ( P=5.87e-14). Adult patients who had CCM with TTNtvs experienced more heart failure and atrial fibrillation ( P=0.003) and impaired myocardial recovery ( P=0.03) than those without. Consistent with human data, anthracycline-treated TTNtv mice and isolated TTNtv cardiomyocytes showed sustained contractile dysfunction unlike wild-type ( P=0.0004 and P<0.002, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Unrecognized rare variants in cardiomyopathy-associated genes, particularly TTNtvs, increased the risk for CCM in children and adults, and adverse cardiac events in adults. Genotype, along with cumulative chemotherapy dosage and traditional cardiovascular risk factors, improves the identification of patients who have cancer at highest risk for CCM. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifiers: NCT01173341; AAML1031; NCT01371981.

Withdrawal of pharmacological treatment for heart failure in patients with recovered dilated cardiomyopathy (TRED-HF): an open-label, pilot, randomised trial.

BACKGROUND: Patients with dilated cardiomyopathy whose symptoms and cardiac function have recovered often ask whether their medications can be stopped. The safety of withdrawing treatment in this situation is unknown. METHODS: We did an open-label, pilot, randomised trial to examine the effect of phased withdrawal of heart failure medications in patients with previous dilated cardiomyopathy who were now asymptomatic, whose left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) had improved from less than 40% to 50% or greater, whose left ventricular end-diastolic volume (LVEDV) had normalised, and who had an N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-pro-BNP) concentration less than 250 ng/L. Patients were recruited from a network of hospitals in the UK, assessed at one centre (Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK), and randomly assigned (1:1) to phased withdrawal or continuation of treatment. After 6 months, patients in the continued treatment group had treatment withdrawn by the same method. The primary endpoint was a relapse of dilated cardiomyopathy within 6 months, defined by a reduction in LVEF of more than 10% and to less than 50%, an increase in LVEDV by more than 10% and to higher than the normal range, a two-fold rise in NT-pro-BNP concentration and to more than 400 ng/L, or clinical evidence of heart failure, at which point treatments were re-established. The primary analysis was by intention to treat. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02859311. FINDINGS: Between April 21, 2016, and Aug 22, 2017, 51 patients were enrolled. 25 were randomly assigned to the treatment withdrawal group and 26 to continue treatment. Over the first 6 months, 11 (44%) patients randomly assigned to treatment withdrawal met the primary endpoint of relapse compared with none of those assigned to continue treatment (Kaplan-Meier estimate of event rate 45·7% [95% CI 28·5-67·2]; p=0·0001). After 6 months, 25 (96%) of 26 patients assigned initially to continue treatment attempted its withdrawal. During the following 6 months, nine patients met the primary endpoint of relapse (Kaplan-Meier estimate of event rate 36·0% [95% CI 20·6-57·8]). No deaths were reported in either group and three serious adverse events were reported in the treatment withdrawal group: hospital admissions for non-cardiac chest pain, sepsis, and an elective procedure. INTERPRETATION: Many patients deemed to have recovered from dilated cardiomyopathy will relapse following treatment withdrawal. Until robust predictors of relapse are defined, treatment should continue indefinitely. FUNDING: British Heart Foundation, Alexander Jansons Foundation, Royal Brompton Hospital and Imperial College London, Imperial College Biomedical Research Centre, Wellcome Trust, and Rosetrees Trust.

Switching Streams Across Ears to Evaluate Informational Masking of Speech-on-Speech.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the informational component of speech-on-speech masking. Speech perception in the presence of a competing talker involves not only informational masking (IM) but also a number of masking processes involving interaction of masker and target energy in the auditory periphery. Such peripherally generated masking can be eliminated by presenting the target and masker in opposite ears (dichotically). However, this also reduces IM by providing listeners with lateralization cues that support spatial release from masking (SRM). In tonal sequences, IM can be isolated by rapidly switching the lateralization of dichotic target and masker streams across the ears, presumably producing ambiguous spatial percepts that interfere with SRM. However, it is not clear whether this technique works with speech materials. DESIGN: Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were measured in 17 young normal-hearing adults for sentences produced by a female talker in the presence of a competing male talker under three different conditions: diotic (target and masker in both ears), dichotic, and dichotic but switching the target and masker streams across the ears. Because switching rate and signal coherence were expected to influence the amount of IM observed, these two factors varied across conditions. When switches occurred, they were either at word boundaries or periodically (every 116 msec) and either with or without a brief gap (84 msec) at every switch point. In addition, SRTs were measured in a quiet condition to rule out audibility as a limiting factor. RESULTS: SRTs were poorer for the four switching dichotic conditions than for the nonswitching dichotic condition, but better than for the diotic condition. Periodic switches without gaps resulted in the worst SRTs compared to the other switch conditions, thus maximizing IM. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that periodically switching the target and masker streams across the ears (without gaps) was the most efficient in disrupting SRM. Thus, this approach can be used in experiments that seek a relatively pure measure of IM, and could be readily extended to translational research.

Adult normative data for the speech in babble (SiB) test.

Objective: The Speech in Babble (SiB) test assesses the perception of speech in noise in UK adults. Here, we define the normal range of SiB scores to enable the use of the test in clinic.Design: In each test, 25 monosyllabic words were played in background multi-talker babble. Listeners had to repeat the word they heard. An adaptive procedure was used to determine the signal-to-noise ratio needed to reach 50% correct responses (i.e. the Speech Reception Threshold). Eight distinct equivalent lists were available.Study sample: Sixty-nine normal-hearing adults (aged 20-57 years) with no reported listening difficulties participated in the study and completed the SiB test twice in both ears.Results: Normative SiB scores varied from -0.8 dB to 3.7 dB suggesting that patients outside these limits should be considered as having abnormal scores. No statistically significant difference between ears and no effect of age or sex was found. There was "fair" test-retest reliability.Conclusion: The SiB test is a short, valid and reliable test that can be used in UK clinics, e.g. as part of a standard APD battery or evaluating the performance of hearing impaired patients.

The effect of dopamine on the comprehension of spectrally-shifted noise-vocoded speech: a pilot study.

Objectives: Cochlear implantation has proven beneficial in restoring hearing. However, success is variable, and there is a need for a simple post-implantation therapy that could significantly increase implantation success. Dopamine has a general role in learning and in assigning value to environmental stimuli. We tested the effect of dopamine in the comprehension of spectrally-shifted noise-vocoded (SSNV) speech, which simulates, in hearing individuals, the signal delivered by a cochlear implant (CI).Design and study sample: Thirty-five participants (age = 38.0 ± 10.1 SD) recruited from the general population were divided into three groups. We tested SSNV speech comprehension in two experimental sessions. In one session, a metabolic precursor of dopamine (L-DOPA) was administered to participants in two of the groups; a placebo was administered in the other session.Results: A single dose of L-DOPA interacted with training to improve perception of SSNV speech, but did not significantly accelerate learning.Conclusions: These findings are a first step in exploring the use of dopamine to enhance speech understanding in CI patients. Replications of these results using SSNV in individuals with normal hearing, and also in CI users, are needed to determine whether these effects can translate into benefits in everyday language comprehension.

Platypnoea-orthodeoxia syndrome: beware of investigations undertaken supine.

Platypnoea-orthodeoxia syndrome (POS) is a rare disorder, manifesting as deoxygenation occurring when the patient is in the upright position. Four broad mechanisms for the condition have been described: intracardiac shunts, intrapulmonary shunts, hepatopulmonary syndrome and pulmonary ventilation-perfusion mismatch. Here, we present the first case of POS in a patient with a proven right to left intracardiac shunt occurring in the context of postural hypotension and normal right heart pressures. We highlight the need to carry out investigations in the upright position before discounting intracardiac shunting as a cause for the syndrome. Short-term improvement of the syndrome was obtained with medical management of the patient's orthostatic hypotension and as such suggests a conservative management strategy for similar patients, which may delay the need for invasive procedures to close the anatomical defect.

Impaired frequency selectivity and sensitivity to temporal fine structure, but not envelope cues, in children with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss.

Psychophysical thresholds were measured for 8-16 year-old children with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss (MMHL; N = 46) on a battery of auditory processing tasks that included measures designed to be dependent upon frequency selectivity and sensitivity to temporal fine structure (TFS) or envelope cues. Children with MMHL who wore hearing aids were tested in both unaided and aided conditions, and all were compared to a group of normally hearing (NH) age-matched controls. Children with MMHL performed more poorly than NH controls on tasks considered to be dependent upon frequency selectivity, sensitivity to TFS, and speech discrimination (/bɑ/-/dɑ/), but not on tasks measuring sensitivity to envelope cues. Auditory processing deficits remained regardless of age, were observed in both unaided and aided conditions, and could not be attributed to differences in nonverbal IQ or attention between groups. However, better auditory processing in children with MMHL was predicted by better audiometric thresholds and, for aided tasks only, higher levels of maternal education. These results suggest that, as for adults with MMHL, children with MMHL may show deficits in frequency selectivity and sensitivity to TFS, but sensitivity to the envelope may remain intact.

Predicting the effects of periodicity on the intelligibility of masked speech: An evaluation of different modelling approaches and their limitations.

Four existing speech intelligibility models with different theoretical assumptions were used to predict previously published behavioural data. Those data showed that complex tones with pitch-related periodicity are far less effective maskers of speech than aperiodic noise. This so-called masker-periodicity benefit (MPB) far exceeded the fluctuating-masker benefit (FMB) obtained from slow masker envelope fluctuations. In contrast, the normal-hearing listeners hardly benefitted from periodicity in the target speech. All tested models consistently underestimated MPB and FMB, while most of them also overestimated the intelligibility of vocoded speech. To understand these shortcomings, the internal signal representations of the models were analysed in detail. The best-performing model, the correlation-based version of the speech-based envelope power spectrum model (sEPSMcorr), combined an auditory processing front end with a modulation filterbank and a correlation-based back end. This model was then modified to further improve the predictions. The resulting second version of the sEPSMcorr outperformed the original model with all tested maskers and accounted for about half the MPB, which can be attributed to reduced modulation masking caused by the periodic maskers. However, as the sEPSMcorr2 failed to account for the other half of the MPB, the results also indicate that future models should consider the contribution of pitch-related effects, such as enhanced stream segregation, to further improve their predictive power.

Development of temporal auditory processing in childhood: Changes in efficiency rather than temporal-modulation selectivity.

The ability to detect amplitude modulation (AM) is essential to distinguish the spectro-temporal features of speech from those of a competing masker. Previous work shows that AM sensitivity improves until 10 years of age. This may relate to the development of sensory factors (tuning of AM filters, susceptibility to AM masking) or to changes in processing efficiency (reduction in internal noise, optimization of decision strategies). To disentangle these hypotheses, three groups of children (5-11 years) and one of young adults completed psychophysical tasks measuring thresholds for detecting sinusoidal AM (with a rate of 4, 8, or 32 Hz) applied to carriers whose inherent modulations exerted different amounts of AM masking. Results showed that between 5 and 11 years, AM detection thresholds improved and that susceptibility to AM masking slightly increased. However, the effects of AM rate and carrier were not associated with age, suggesting that sensory factors are mature by 5 years. Subsequent modelling indicated that reducing internal noise by a factor 10 accounted for the observed developmental trends. Finally, children's consonant identification thresholds in noise related to some extent to AM sensitivity. Increased efficiency in AM detection may support better use of temporal information in speech during childhood.

Association Between Midwall Late Gadolinium Enhancement and Sudden Cardiac Death in Patients With Dilated Cardiomyopathy and Mild and Moderate Left Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction.

BACKGROUND: Current guidelines only recommend the use of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy for the primary prevention of sudden cardiac death (SCD) in those with a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) <35%. However, registries of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests demonstrate that 70% to 80% of such patients have an LVEF >35%. Patients with an LVEF >35% also have low competing risks of death from nonsudden causes. Therefore, those at high risk of SCD may gain longevity from successful implantable cardioverter defibrillator therapy. We investigated whether late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) cardiovascular magnetic resonance identified patients with dilated cardiomyopathy without severe LV systolic dysfunction at high risk of SCD. METHODS: We prospectively investigated the association between midwall LGE and the prespecified primary composite outcome of SCD or aborted SCD among consecutive referrals with dilated cardiomyopathy and an LVEF ≥40% to our center between January 2000 and December 2011 who did not have a preexisting indication for implantable cardioverter defibrillator implantation. RESULTS: Of 399 patients (145 women, median age 50 years, median LVEF 50%, 25.3% with LGE) followed for a median of 4.6 years, 18 of 101 (17.8%) patients with LGE reached the prespecified end point, compared with 7 of 298 (2.3%) without (hazard ratio [HR], 9.2; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.9-21.8; P<0.0001). Nine patients (8.9%) with LGE compared with 6 (2.0%) without (HR, 4.9; 95% CI, 1.8-13.5; P=0.002) died suddenly, whereas 10 patients (9.9%) with LGE compared with 1 patient (0.3%) without (HR, 34.8; 95% CI, 4.6-266.6; P<0.001) had aborted SCD. After adjustment, LGE predicted the composite end point (HR, 9.3; 95% CI, 3.9-22.3; P<0.0001), SCD (HR, 4.8; 95% CI, 1.7-13.8; P=0.003), and aborted SCD (HR, 35.9; 95% CI, 4.8-271.4; P<0.001). Estimated HRs for the primary end point for patients with an LGE extent of 0% to 2.5%, 2.5% to 5%, and >5% compared with those without LGE were 10.6 (95% CI, 3.9-29.4), 4.9 (95% CI, 1.3-18.9), and 11.8 (95% CI, 4.3-32.3), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Midwall LGE identifies a group of patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and an LVEF ≥40% at increased risk of SCD and low risk of nonsudden death who may benefit from implantable cardioverter defibrillator implantation. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: http://clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00930735.

The effect of head-up tilt upon markers of heart rate variability in patients with atrial fibrillation.

BACKGROUND: Heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is uncommonly undertaken in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) due to an assumption that ventricular response is random. We sought to determine the effects of head-up tilt (HUT), a stimulus known to elicit an autonomic response, on HRV in patients with AF; we contrasted the findings with those of patients in sinus rhythm (SR). METHODS: Consecutive, clinically indicated tilt tests were examined for 207 patients: 176 in SR, 31 in AF. Patients in AF were compared to an age-matched SR cohort (n = 69). Five minute windows immediately before and after tilting were analyzed using time-domain, frequency-domain and nonlinear HRV parameters. Continuous, noninvasive assessment of blood pressure, heart rate and stroke volume were available in the majority of patients. RESULTS: There were significant differences at baseline in all HRV parameters between AF and age matched SR. HUT produced significant hemodynamic changes, regardless of cardiac rhythm. Coincident with these hemodynamic changes, patients in AF had a significant increase in median [quartile 1, 2] DFA-α2 (+0.14 [-0.03, 0.32], p < .005) and a decrease in sample entropy (-0.17 [-0.50, -0.01], p < .005). CONCLUSION: In the SR cohort, increasing age was associated with fewer HRV changes on tilting. Patients with AF had blunted HRV responses to tilting, mirroring those seen in an age matched SR group. It is feasible to measure HRV in patients with AF and the changes observed on HUT are comparable to those seen in patients in sinus rhythm.

The role of envelope periodicity in the perception of masked speech with simulated and real cochlear implants.

In normal hearing, complex tones with pitch-related periodic envelope modulations are far less effective maskers of speech than aperiodic noise. Here, it is shown that this masker-periodicity benefit is diminished in noise-vocoder simulations of cochlear implants (CIs) and further reduced with real CIs. Nevertheless, both listener groups still benefitted significantly from masker periodicity, despite the lack of salient spectral pitch cues. The main reason for the smaller effect observed in CI users is thought to be an even stronger channel interaction than in the CI simulations, which smears out the random envelope modulations that are characteristic for aperiodic sounds. In contrast, neither interferers that were amplitude-modulated at a rate of 10 Hz nor maskers with envelopes specifically designed to reveal the target speech enabled a masking release in CI users. Hence, even at the high signal-to-noise ratios at which they were tested, CI users can still exploit pitch cues transmitted by the temporal envelope of a non-speech masker, whereas slow amplitude modulations of the masker envelope are no longer helpful.

Quality-of-life outcomes from the Prostate Adenocarcinoma: TransCutaneous Hormones (PATCH) trial evaluating luteinising hormone-releasing hormone agonists versus transdermal oestradiol for androgen suppression in advanced prostate cancer.

OBJECTIVES: To compare quality-of-life (QoL) outcomes at 6 months between men with advanced prostate cancer receiving either transdermal oestradiol (tE2) or luteinising hormone-releasing hormone agonists (LHRHa) for androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Men with locally advanced or metastatic prostate cancer participating in an ongoing randomised, multicentre UK trial comparing tE2 versus LHRHa for ADT were enrolled into a QoL sub-study. tE2 was delivered via three or four transcutaneous patches containing oestradiol 100 µg/24 h. LHRHa was administered as per local practice. Patients completed questionnaires based on the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life questionnaire 30-item core (EORTC QLQ-C30) with prostate-specific module QLQ PR25. The primary outcome measure was global QoL score at 6 months, compared between randomised arms. RESULTS: In all, 727 men were enrolled between August 2007 and October 2015 (412 tE2, 315 LHRHa) with QoL questionnaires completed at both baseline and 6 months. Baseline clinical characteristics were similar between arms: median (interquartile range) age of 74 (68-79) years and PSA level of 44 (19-119) ng/mL, and 40% (294/727) had metastatic disease. At 6 months, patients on tE2 reported higher global QoL than those on LHRHa (mean difference +4.2, 95% confidence interval 1.2-7.1; P = 0.006), less fatigue, and improved physical function. Men in the tE2 arm were less likely to experience hot flushes (8% vs 46%), and report a lack of sexual interest (59% vs 74%) and sexual activity, but had higher rates of significant gynaecomastia (37% vs 5%). The higher incidence of hot flushes among LHRHa patients appear to account for both the reduced global QoL and increased fatigue in the LHRHa arm compared to the tE2 arm. CONCLUSION: Patients receiving tE2 for ADT had better 6-month self-reported QoL outcomes compared to those on LHRHa, but increased likelihood of gynaecomastia. The ongoing trial will evaluate clinical efficacy and longer term QoL. These findings are also potentially relevant for short-term neoadjuvant ADT.

Vowel recognition at fundamental frequencies up to 1 kHz reveals point vowels as acoustic landmarks.

The phonological function of vowels can be maintained at fundamental frequencies (fo) up to 880 Hz [Friedrichs, Maurer, and Dellwo (2015). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 138, EL36-EL42]. Here, the influence of talker variability and multiple response options on vowel recognition at high fos is assessed. The stimuli (n = 264) consisted of eight isolated vowels (/i y e ø ε a o u/) produced by three female native German talkers at 11 fos within a range of 220-1046 Hz. In a closed-set identification task, 21 listeners were presented excised 700-ms vowel nuclei with quasi-flat fo contours and resonance trajectories. The results show that listeners can identify the point vowels /i a u/ at fos up to almost 1 kHz, with a significant decrease for the vowels /y ε/ and a drop to chance level for the vowels /e ø o/ toward the upper fos. Auditory excitation patterns reveal highly differentiable representations for /i a u/ that can be used as landmarks for vowel category perception at high fos. These results suggest that theories of vowel perception based on overall spectral shape will provide a fuller account of vowel perception than those based solely on formant frequency patterns.

Getting the Cocktail Party Started: Masking Effects in Speech Perception.

Spoken conversations typically take place in noisy environments, and different kinds of masking sounds place differing demands on cognitive resources. Previous studies, examining the modulation of neural activity associated with the properties of competing sounds, have shown that additional speech streams engage the superior temporal gyrus. However, the absence of a condition in which target speech was heard without additional masking made it difficult to identify brain networks specific to masking and to ascertain the extent to which competing speech was processed equivalently to target speech. In this study, we scanned young healthy adults with continuous fMRI, while they listened to stories masked by sounds that differed in their similarity to speech. We show that auditory attention and control networks are activated during attentive listening to masked speech in the absence of an overt behavioral task. We demonstrate that competing speech is processed predominantly in the left hemisphere within the same pathway as target speech but is not treated equivalently within that stream and that individuals who perform better in speech in noise tasks activate the left mid-posterior superior temporal gyrus more. Finally, we identify neural responses associated with the onset of sounds in the auditory environment; activity was found within right lateralized frontal regions consistent with a phasic alerting response. Taken together, these results provide a comprehensive account of the neural processes involved in listening in noise.