Clinical Trial: Early Diagnosis of Steroid-Responsive & No-Responsive Hearing Loss
Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Observational
Official Title: Early Diagnosis of Steroid-Responsive & No-Responsive Hearing Loss
Brief Summary:
Tinnitus is a prevalent issue for veterans who are proportionally more hearing-impaired than the civilian population.
This study will be conducted as three concurrent projects designed to develop an efficient clinical technique to quantify tinnitus perception:
(1)Laboratory development of the automated technique for comprehensive tinnitus quantification;(2)Development of a technique to test for tinnitus "malingering"; and (3)Evaluation of the automated technique in the clinical environment.
Detailed Summary:
Because of its close association with sensorineural hearing loss, tinnitus is a prevalent issue for veterans who are proportionally more hearing-impaired than the civilian population. The VA system disburses $110 million per year to over 115,000 veterans for their service-connected tinnitus disability, thus it is clearly a problem for veterans and for the VA. Unfortunately, most VAMCs do not have systematic clinical care available for their veterans suffering from tinnitus. The most obvious needs are to develop effective treatment methodologies for veterans, and to standardize a procedure for quantifying the disorder. Each of these concerns is a focus of this laboratory, and the present proposal addresses the latter need as a continuation study to develop reliable techniques to measure tinnitus.
The goal of this proposed study is a fully functional system, documented for response reliability and ready for clinical implementation at VA audiology clinics outside of Portland. To achieve that end goal, the study will be conducted as three concurrent projects: (1) Further laboratory development of the automated technique for comprehensive tinnitus quantification; (2) Development of a technique to test for tinnitus "malingering"; and (3) Evaluation of the automated technique in the clinical environment.
For Project 1, a series of experiments is proposed to reduce the time of testing, and to add new measurement capabilities. Each experiment will involve specification, design, and implementation of program modifications, human subject testing, analysis of results, and further modifications as indicated. Another series of experiments (Project 2) will be conducted to develop a tinnitus malingering exam. With such a test, veterans with true tinnitus would provide reliable responses, while those feigning tinnitus would have
Sponsor: VA Office of Research and Development
Current Primary Outcome:
Original Primary Outcome:
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Original Secondary Outcome:
Information By: VA Office of Research and Development
Dates:
Date Received: March 14, 2001
Date Started: August 2000
Date Completion:
Last Updated: January 20, 2009
Last Verified: January 2001
