title: AMTAS(®): automated method for testing auditory sensitivity: II. air conduction audiograms in children and adults.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study was designed to evaluate an automated pure-tone audiometric procedure (AMTAS(®)) for 4-8 year-old children, and a quality assessment method (QUALIND(®)) that predicts the accuracy of the test.
  
  
  METHODS
  Children were tested with AMTAS and conventional manual air-conduction audiometry. A group of adults was tested for comparison.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eighty-one 4-8 year-old children and 15 adults. Most had normal hearing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For most subjects (93% of adults and 91% of children) differences between AMTAS and manual thresholds were similar to differences that occur when two experienced audiologists test the same subjects. QUALIND detected the inaccurate audiograms with a sensitivity of 71% and a specificity of 91%. When inaccurate audiograms identified by QUALIND are excluded, the accuracy of AMTAS is similar to the accuracy of manual audiometry.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  AMTAS produces accurate air-conduction audiograms in a high proportion of 4-8 year-old children and adults. QUALIND successfully identified most inaccurate AMTAS audiograms. The method can decrease the cost and increase efficiency and accessibility of hearing testing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, University of Minnesota , Minneapolis, USA. margo001@umn.edu
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Margolis
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Frisina
authors.forename: Joseph P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Walton
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D001331:Automation; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results