title: Massively Parallel Sequencing for Genetic Diagnosis of Hearing Loss: The New Standard of Care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the use of new genetic sequencing techniques for comprehensive genetic testing for hearing loss.
  
  
  METHODS
  Articles were identified from PubMed and Google Scholar databases using pertinent search terms.
  
  
  METHODS
  Literature search identified 30 studies as candidates that met search criteria. Three studies were excluded, and 8 studies were found to be case reports. Twenty studies were included for review analysis, including 7 studies that evaluated controls and 16 studies that evaluated patients with unknown causes of hearing loss; 3 studies evaluated both controls and patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In the 20 studies included in the review analysis, 426 control samples and 603 patients with unknown causes of hearing loss underwent comprehensive genetic diagnosis for hearing loss using massively parallel sequencing. Control analysis showed a sensitivity and specificity >99%, sufficient for clinical use of these tests. The overall diagnostic rate was 41% (range, 10%-83%) and varied based on several factors, including inheritance and prescreening prior to comprehensive testing. There were significant differences in platforms available with regard to the number and type of genes included and whether copy number variations were examined. Based on these results, comprehensive genetic testing should form the cornerstone of a tiered approach to clinical evaluation of patients with hearing loss along with history, physical examination, and audiometry and can determine further testing that may be required, if any.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Comprehensive genetic testing has become the new standard of care for genetic testing for patients with sensorineural hearing loss.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.
authors.forename: A Eliot
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Shearer
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa, USA Interdepartmental PhD Program in Genetics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA Department of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa, USA richard-smith@uiowa.edu.
authors.forename: Richard J H
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000235:genetics; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D006801:Humans; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: deafness; genetic testing; genomics; hearing loss