ARTFit—A Quick and Reliable Tool for Performing Initial Fittings in Users of MED-EL Cochlear Implants

This study assessed the safety and performance of ARTFit, a new tool embedded in MAESTRO, the cochlear implant (CI) system software by MED-EL GmbH (Innsbruck, Austria). ARTFit automatically measures thresholds of the electrically evoked compound action potential (ECAP) to produce initial ‘maps’ (ECAPMAPs), i.e., configuration settings of the audio processor that the audiologist switches to live mode and adjusts for comfortable loudness (LiveECAPMAPs). Twenty-three adult and ten pediatric users of MED-EL CIs participated. The LiveECAPMAPs were compared to behavioral maps (LiveBurstMAPs) and to the participants’ everyday clinical maps (ClinMAPs). Four evaluation measures were considered: average deviations of the maximum comfortable loudness (MCL) levels of the LiveECAPMAPs and the LiveBurstMAPs from the MCLs of the ClinMAPs; correlations between the MCLs of the LiveECAPMAPs (MCL(ecap)) and the LiveBurstMAPs (MCL(burst)) with the MCLs of the ClinMAPs (MCL(clin)); fitting durations; and speech reception thresholds (SRTs). All evaluation measures were analyzed separately in the adult and pediatric subgroups. For all evaluation measures, the deviations of the LiveECAPMAPs from the ClinMAPs were not larger than those of the LiveBurstMAPs from the ClinMAPs. The Pearson correlation between the MCL(ecap) and the MCL(clin) across all channels was r(2) = 0.732 (p < 0.001) in the adult and r(2) = 0.616 (p < 0.001) in the pediatric subgroups. The mean fitting duration in minutes for the LiveECAPMAPs was significantly shorter than for that of the LiveBurstMAPs in both subgroups: adults took 5.70 (range 1.90–11.98) vs. 9.27 (6.83–14.72) min; children took 3.03 (1.97–4.22) vs. 7.35 (3.95–12.77). SRTs measured with the LiveECAPMAPs were non-inferior to those measured with the ClinMAPs and not statistically different to the SRTs measured with the LiveBurstMAPs. ARTFit is a safe, quick, and reliable tool for audiologists to produce ECAP-based initial fitting maps in adults and young children who are not able to provide subjective feedback.