Auditory neuropathy (AN) is a hearing disorder clinically characterized by present otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) and absent or grossly abnormal Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) testing/measures. The diagnostic label “Auditory Neuropathy” was coined by Starr, Picton, Sininger, Hood, and Berlin in 1996, due to the pattern of results that seemingly indicated normal outer hair cell function, as determined by normal OAE recordings, in the presence of abnormal functioning of the vestibulo-cochlear nerve (VIIIth nerve), indicated by abnormal ABR responses and absent middle ear muscle reflexes (MEMRs). Berlin, Hood, and Rose (2001) further investigated the underlying mechanisms of AN in order to ascertain the precise location of dysfunction. From their investigation, Berlin et al. determined that the VIIIth nerve might not always be the site of lesion in AN; consequently, adding the term Auditory Dys-Synchrony in lieu of AN exclusively was recommended in an attempt to be semantically appropriate (Berlin, 2001).

            ... to read the rest of the GUEST editorial

CV of the guest Editor

Dr. Paula Moore received her MS (in Communication Disorders and Sciences) and Au.D (Audiology) degrees from Gallaudet University. She collaborates with assistant editor Dr. Thierry Morlet for the last two years on issues related to Pediatric diagnostic audiological evaluations and hearing screenings, Middle ear function testing, Hearing aid counseling, selection, and fittings. Her contribution is a review on the Presence and Behavior of Otoacoustic Emissions in Children with Auditory Neuropathy/Auditory Dys-Synchrony.

This section contains the material which will be available on line in the near future. The lists are divided into Editorials, PowerPoint lectures and white papers.

This area is reserved for announcements on meetings , workshops or seminars exclusively on OAEs. The meetings can be national (i.e. in languages other than English).

If you want to promote or advertise a forthcoming event you can contact us by clicking here.

One of the services we have considered offering to the OAE community is the possibility to download multimedia material related to OAEs. The biggest problem which we have to resolved, is the size of these files (many MBs) which make their downloading almost impossible with the common modem 56K connections.
       Nevertheless the size of a multimedia file can be significantly reduced using the newest video compression technologies (DivX, 3ivx etc) . In order to view the compressed videos you have to download and install FIRST, the necessary decoding software. A variety of free programs is available to you at the multimedia player and decoder page.

If you want to know what well-known peer-reviewed journals are saying about the OAE Portal you might consult the following pages :

• Ear and Hearing (February 2002)



• ACTA-Laryngologica-Stoch-(September 2002, vol. 122, pag 688)



• Audiology Today, (May-June 2003, pag.58). Large image (320k) from the article Small image (120k) from the article.
  
  
• Audiology Today, (November -December 2004, , pag.46).
   
• ENTNews (September -October 2003, Number 4, Volume 12). To download the pdf scan of the article click here.
  
  

We have created this section in order to get your direct INPUT regarding the contents of the Portal. So ...

• if you have tried to find information on a topic and you were unsuccessful;
  
  
• or you want to suggest a certain expansion of an existing argument;
  
  
• or you want to suggest the insertion of information on a non-existing argument;
  
  you can contact us by clicking    here.
  
  
• REMEMBER that for any other comments you can visit the dedicated FORUM space.
  
  

As some of you might have realized (during the last 24 months), the Portal material was initially design as a cybernetic book, containing various chapters on topics of interest.
       Since our initial debut date in 2001 the educational material has been enhanced considerably with editorials, white papers and on-line powerpoint presentations (which we are gradually converting to pdf).
         In the last 12 months numerous users have contacted us with requests of specific topics which were present in the Portal !! To answer better and more efficiently these requests we have designed the following INDEXed page, following our initial chapter design.

you can access the INTEX by clicking    here.

• The sponsor pages were updated with material related to the Interacoustics line of OAE & ABR products (OtoRead and the Eclipse platform).
  
  

• The future highlights page has been updated with material related to the last months of 2008.
  
  

• Dr. Meggan Olek, Director of Education for the American Academy of Audiology has provided information regarding a forthcoming Research conference on OAEs. Dates are set from April 1, 2009 in Dallas TX. There is a CALL FOR PAPERS for Poster submissions open right now. The Poster Submissions are due November 24, 2008.
  
  
• Submissions can be sent online at : http://www.proposalspace.com/login.
  
  

• The future highlights page has been updated with material up to December 2008.
  
  

• The Sponsored and new-software-releases pages were updated with material from our sponsor Interacoustics.
  
  

• The PowerPoint on-line lecture pages (screening section) were updated with a contribution from Dr. Joseph Pytel titled "Main difficulties in establishing a successful EDHI program -lights and shadows in Hungary-".
  
  

• The future highlights page has been updated with material up to October 2008.
  
  

• Dr. Ioannis Psaromatis (2007 guest editor) has provided us with an update of the screening practices in Greece. The update is placed in the section of Neonatal Screening - Programs from all over the World section.
  
  

• While most of the efforts of the NHS-UNHS-and EHDI programs focus on the identification of hearing impairment in the newborn population , a relatively recent method, which has been applied in the Gynecology and Obstetrics Clinic Narodni front in Belgrade, Serbia, focuses on the estimation and monitoring of the hearing acuity of the fetus. Further developments in this area might include the possibility of estimating hearing deficits prenatal.
  

• The future highlights page has been updated with material related to the first 6 months of 2008.
  
  

• NHS -2008 (Cernobbio , Italy) update:The deadline for submission of abstracts has been extended to February 1. The preliminary program is now available together with an update of the Auditory Neuropathy Conference.
  
  

• Our sponsor GSI-VIASYS has been purchased by the Cardinal Health group. Updated information on the AOAE and ASSR product lines are expected the first trimester of 2008.
  
  

• The OAE Hardware pages were updated with recent material from Vivosonic on their Integrity™ V500 platform (TEOAE, DPOAE, ABR, ASSR). For more information on the platform you can contact Mr. Edward Goss at Vivosonic.
  
  

• The OAE Hardware pages were updated with recent material from Interacoustics. Software improvements in a number of programs are reported below in the Interacoustics Updates page.
  
  EP15/EP25 v. 3.03 released on 1/2-2007
  * VEMP is now available for the ECLIPSE platform, either as a stand alone system or as part of the EP15 or EP25 system.
  * All ECLIPSEs and those MedPCs holding a USB driven board can be upgraded to hold the EP25 version 3.03 which has the option to add a VEMP license.
  
  ABRIS v. 1.05 released on 3/5-2007
  * The ABRIS module has been translated to German.
  
  DPOAE v. 1.02 released on 3/5-2007
  
  * The DPOAE module has been translated to German.
  * Improved pass criterion, variance and sideband check
  * An extra decimal has been added to DP and noise result in order to get a higher degree of accuracy.
  * Improved printout: The f1 frequency colon has been removed and a S/N level calculation added instead.
  
  TEOAE25 v. 3.04 released on 4/10-2007
  
  * Fixes a few minor bugs
  
  Interacoustics ASSR v. 1.01 released on 8/5-2007
  
  * Fixed a minor bug in the calibration application setup
  
  
  

• The Impact Factor page was updated with the 2006 ISI index.
  
  

• Some delays are expected in the updates scheduled for November -December 2008, due to the maintenance of the Portal server and the indexing and evaluation of the 600 MB material accumulated so far !!!
  
  
• We do apologize to the contributing authors, but considering the breaks due to the forthcoming festivities the postponed or delayed 2007 material will appear in early 2008.
  
  

• The hardware pages were updated with recent product releases. Further updates are expected within the month of December.
  
  

• The OAE Links page was updated with the latest available site links (unfortunately some older links were found inactive and were eliminated). Since the number of dedicated resources is low we have updated also the HTML page with a list of 100 resources (sites & documents) from a global Google search.
  
  
• The Future Highlights page has been updated with the material for the rest of 2007 and the first trimester of 2008.
  
  

• The hardware pages and the sponsor pages were further updated with recent product releases.
  
  

• The OAE Links page was updated with the latest available site links. Since the number of dedicated resources is low we have also included a HTML page with a list of 100 resources (sites & documents) from a global Google search.
  
  
• The meetings page has been updated with the latest information on the forthcoming NHS2008 Conference. The title is Beyond Newborn Hearing Screening: Infant and Childhood Hearing in Science and Clinical Practice. It will take place in June 19 - 21, 2008 at Cernobbio (Como Lake), Italy as in previous years.
  
  
• The Future Highlights page has been updated with the material for the rest of 2007.
  
  

• For technical reasons (+ the summer break) the work flow in the Portal has been delayed of approximately 60 days. The scheduled material will be incorporated in the presentations of August and September 2007.
  
  
• The pages in the MEDLINE listing sections were updated with the latest 34 entries (volume 2) of 2007.
  
• The Italian Authoring pages were updated with contributions from the Ferrara and Roma ISPESL groups.
  
  
• From this month, the MEDLINE authoring sections will be presented in a slightly different manner. Since the MEDLINE database has been recently upgraded, it is possible to access for every indexed article a number of similar papers (based on a number of determined keywords). This makes searching a lot easier  and provides access to the works of each OAE working group. This new presentation style is provided experimentally with volume 2  (2007).
  
• For the Italian Authoring groups, links to the corresponding group pages will be also provided directly from the MEDLINE volume pages (see volume 2 for example).
  
  

• The pages in the MEDLINE listing section were update with the latest 20 entries (volume 1) of 2007.
  
  
• The Italian authoring pages were updated with the contributions from the Ferrara group.
  
  

• Due to a set of internal re-organization of the software facilities of the hosting institute (University of Ferrara), the pages of the Portal will be updated after May 7th.The possible 30-day delay in the updates will be evenly distributed in the months of May and June 2007.
  
  

• The Pages on Alternative screening technologies (ASSR) were updated with ASSR Hardware information.
  
  

• The sponsored pages were updated with material from Interacoustics and Viasys-Healthsystems
  
  

• The pages in the MEDLINE listing section were update with the latest 65 entries (volume 4 & 5& 6) of 2006.
  
  
• The Italian authoring pages were updated as well with the contributions from the Ferrara and Rome groups.