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[Possibility for quantitative and frequency-specific assessment of auditory threshold with otoacoustic emissions]
A Dreher1, M Suckfüll, S Schneeweiss
1Klinik und Poliklinik für Hals-, Nasen- und Ohrenkranke, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
Background:
Otoacoustic emissions can be used to study cochlear function in a non-invasive manner. They are an effective clinical tool for infant hearing screening. The purpose of this study was to determine their utility for a frequency-specific and quantitative estimation of the hearing threshold.
Methods:
Transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) and distortion-product emissions (DPOAE) were recorded from 16 normal and 86 hearing impaired ears and correlated with their hearing threshold between 0.5 and 6.0 kHz.
Results:
The correlations of TEOAE and the hearing threshold ranged from 0.53 (0.5 kHz) to 0.69 (6.0 kHz), of the DPOAE from 0.51 (0.5 kHz) to 0.83 (6.0 kHz). Based on the optimal correlating OAE frequency we tried to predict the hearing threshold. We obtained 95% prediction intervals for TEOA between 19 dB (1.0 kHz) and 39 dB (4.0 and 6.0 kHz), for DPOAE between 21 dB (1.0) and 34 dB (3.0 and 4.0 kHz).
Conclusion:
Despite their clinically irrelevant greater prediction intervals at the low frequencies, our results suggest that DPOAEs are generally more valuable for the frequency-specific estimation of the hearing threshold. Prediction intervals may improve the interpretation of OAEs.