AMTAS(®): Automated Method for Testing Auditory Sensitivity: II. Air Conduction Audiograms in Children and Adults

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.

Design: Children were tested with AMTAS and conventional manual air-conduction audiometry. A group of adults was tested for comparison.

Study Sample: 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.