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Automatic Recognition of Auditory Brainstem Evoked Response Tracings
Vito Di Gesu', PhD, Professor of Mathematics
Giorgio Grisanti,MD,Professor of Audiology
Salvatore Crino', M.D., PhD student
Antonino D'Amico, Electronic Engineer
Emanuele Manco, Undergraduate collaborator
A system for the analysis and automatic recognition of Auditory Brainstem evoked Response (ABR) tracings is presented. The method of analysis is based on the grammatical approach, that is, the ABR tracings are represented with words defined on a alphabet in which the letters represent vector segments of the tracing (increasing segment, decreasing segment, horizontal segment) and therefore, identify the most significant parts of the tracing.
Before the recognition phase, a preprocessessing phase divides the tracing into segments and the points of peak, valley and shoulder are identified.
The results of the analysis consist in a linguistic description of the tracing; for example:
V wave: present
latency 5.6 msec
reliability: good
Fuzzy indicators provide the degree of reliability (the value varies within the interval 0-1).
This technique was realized using a PC/AT in Window 3.1 environment. The analysis procedures were implemented in Borland Pascal language. The environment utilized has permitted the realization of a man/machine interface of the iconic and graphic type.
The results obtained, compared to those of a human expert, demostrate the validity of the method used.
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Last updated: August 1999 by Dr. S.Cusimano