Advanced Bionics Naida CI Q70 Mode D'emploi page 33

Evaluation of Front-End Sound Processing Features of
the Naída CI Sound Processor Family
Front-end sound-cleaning features (WindBlock,
SoundRelax, EchoBlock) are designed to improve and/
or ease listening ability in environmentally noisy and/
or challenging listening environments for AB implant
recipients using a Naída CI Q70 sound processor. A non-
inferiority clinical study was conducted to demonstrate
that there is no negative impact on speech understanding
in quiet and noise when these features are enabled.
Subjects were 18 experienced adult recipients of
CII/HiRes 90K implants (12 unilateral, 6 bilateral).
Baseline AzBio sentence recognition was assessed
acutely in quiet and in speech-spectrum noise. Then
subjects were evaluated under the same conditions
using each individual feature (WindBlock, SoundRelax,
EchoBlock) and a combination of features (WindBlock +
SoundRelax + auto UltraZoom). While auto UltraZoom
was included in the testing, this feature is not available
in the Naída CI Q70 sound processor.
Subjects then experienced the features chronically
over a four-week period. Using a randomized, blinded
crossover design, subjects were fit with either a single
feature (auto UltraZoom) or a combined feature program
(WindBlock + SoundRelax + auto UltraZoom), each for
two weeks. Group A started with the single feature, and
Group B started with the combined feature program.
At the end of each two-week period, subjects completed a
questionnaire that assessed their subjective comfort and
acceptability of the feature(s).
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