Comparison of continuous and pulsed stimuli in contralateral acoustic reflex threshold measurements

Continuous pure-tone stimuli are traditionally used for contralateral acoustic reflex threshold (ART) testing. The GSI-33 middle ear analyzer provides an option of pulsed stimuli for contralateral ART testing. This study compared ARTs for the steady and the pulsed stimuli for 100 ears. Lower ARTs were consistently obtained with the continuous rather than the pulsed stimulus for more than 90% of the thresholds.