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Advanced Bionics: Setting New Standards I

Latest Results from the Harmony Fidelity 120 Study

The ongoing Adult HiRes Fidelity 120™ Study examines the combination of the new HiRes Fidelity 120™ sound coding strategy with the Harmony™ sound processor. In North America, a group of 50 experienced adult CII Bionic Ear^® and HiRes 90K^® implant users was studied. Mean age at implantation was 55 years; subjects had, on average, six years of severe to profound hearing loss prior to implantation. The mean duration of HiRes^® use at the baseline testing was 1.7 years, before being upgraded to HiRes 120 on the Harmony processor.

Outstanding results were obtained following three months of HiRes 120 and Harmony use. The mean CNC word score in quiet was 65%.  The 92% mean score for the HINT sentence test in quiet showed a strong ceiling effect. Note that these exceptional scores were obtained for presentation levels of 60 dB SPL, rather than the 70 dB SPL used in previous studies. To better reflect real-life listening, the HINT sentence test was also administered with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of only +8 dB; the speech presentation level again being 60 dB SPL. Previously, a +10 dB SNR was commonly used. While a 2-dB change does not sound much, psychometric functions typically show up to a 10% drop in score for each dB by which SNR decreases. Bearing this in mind, the 70% mean score at +8 dB is truly remarkable.