Predicting hearing loss from the acoustic reflex

An alternative procedure for predicting hearing threshold level (HTL) from the acoustic reflex threshold (ART) was explored. The ART was measured with an otoadmittance meter using pure tones (.5, 1, 2, or 4 kc/s) or noise-band (.1-1.6; 1.8-6; .1-6 kc/s) reflex-eliciting signals, on 75 normal Ss and 83 Ss with mild-to-severe sensorineural hearing loss. The largest positive linear relationship (R = .83) was found between the pure-tone average HTL at .5, 1, 2, and 4 kc/s vs the ART using the high-pass noise (1.8-6 kc/s) combined with the ART to .5 kc/s. Regression equations were developed to predict the 4-frequency PTA and other indexes of hearing sensitivity from these ARTs.