Hearing aids are commonly fit with ear canals partially or fully open—a condition that increases the risk of acoustic feedback. Feedback limits the audiometric fitting range of devices by limiting usable gain. To guide clinical decision making and device selection, we developed the Peak Height Insertion Gain (PHIG) method to detect feedback spikes in the short-term insertion gain derived from audio recordings. Using a manikin, 145 audio recordings of a speech signal were obtained from seven hearing aids. Each hearing aid was programmed for a moderate high-frequency hearing loss with systematic variations in frequency response, gain, and feedback suppression; this created audio recordings that varied the presence and strength of feedback. Using subjective ratings from 13 expert judges, the presence of feedback was determined and then classified according to its temporal and tonal qualities. These classifications were used to optimize parameters for two versions of the PHIG method based on global and local analyses. When specificity was fixed at 0.95, the sensitivity of the global analysis was 0.86 and increased to 0.95 when combined with the local analysis. Without compromising performance, a clinically expedient version of the PHIG method can be obtained using only a single measurement.

中文翻译：

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用于量化助听器声反馈的峰值高度插入增益 (PHIG) 方法

助听器通常在耳道部分或完全打开的情况下安装，这种情况会增加声反馈的风险。反馈通过限制可用增益来限制设备的听力测试范围。为了指导临床决策和设备选择，我们开发了峰值高度插入增益 (PHIG) 方法来检测源自音频记录的短期插入增益中的反馈峰值。使用人体模型，从 7 个助听器获得了 145 个语音信号的音频记录。每个助听器都针对中度高频听力损失进行了编程，并在频率响应、增益和反馈抑制方面存在系统变化；这创建了改变反馈的存在和强度的录音。使用 13 名专家评委的主观评分来确定反馈的存在，然后根据其时间和音调质量进行分类。这些分类用于基于全局和局部分析优化两个版本 PHIG 方法的参数。当特异性固定为 0.95 时，全局分析的敏感性为 0.86，与局部分析结合时，敏感性增加至 0.95。在不影响性能的情况下，仅使用一次测量即可获得临床上方便的 PHIG 方法。