Objective: This study defines a screening procedure for cochlear implant (CI) candidacy in hearing aid users by using simple audiometric measures.
Methods: Within this retrospective study, hearing aid performance and audiometric measures in 185 subjects (318 ears) were analyzed. By means of a linear Naive Bayes classifier, the pure-tone average and the maximum monosyllabic score (PB(max)) were used to predict the aided monosyllabic word score and CI candidacy.
Results: The two parameters PB(max) and four-frequency hearing threshold average can be used to predict speech perception with hearing aids with reasonable accuracy for screening purposes. The classification has a sensitivity of 87% and a specificity of 91%. The classification can be represented by a simple linear formula.
Conclusion: CI candidacy can be predicted based on commonly used audiometric measures.Cochlear implant candidacy may be considered if the difference between the average pure-tone threshold (in decibels) and PBmax (in percent) exceeds 8.