Assessment of bone conduction thresholds using automated pure tone audiometry

A bone conduction automatic audiometry scheme with adaptive masking for the non-test ear was implemented, and a complete automated pure tone audiometry program based on personal terminals was developed. Automated pure tone audiometry was conducted on 20 normal hearing subjects, and the results were compared with those obtained using the AC40 clinical audiometer. The majority of estimated air conduction thresholds (96%) and bone conduction thresholds (90%) differed from the clinical audiometer results by less than 10 dB. Furthermore, in the Bland-Altman plots of air and bone conduction thresholds and the air-bone gap, the data largely fell within the 95% confidence interval. The average difference and mean absolute difference in bone conduction thresholds between the automated system and the clinical audiometer were −0.17 dB and 4.52 dB, respectively, both generally smaller than the differences reported in existing automated audiometry systems.