Tone burst-evoked otoacoustic emissions in cats with acoustic overstimulation and anoxia

Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) produced by a 2 kHz tone burst could be detected in 30 out of 37 ears (81% detectability) in 21 cats. The amplitude of tone burst-evoked TEOAE was saturated at a stimulus level between 45 and 50 dB SPL and the latency time of peak amplitude was 6.23 ms on average (5.53-7.28 ms). The effects of pure tone overstimulation and short-term anoxia on the tone burst-evoked TEOAE in cats were evaluated. A permanent detection threshold shift of the TEOAE was confirmed at 24 h and 1 week after the overstimulation at 125 dB SPL. In these cases, damaged first row outer hair cells and inner hair cells were observed over an average length of 3.3 mm (16% of the entire cochlear length) by scanning electron microscopy. These findings suggested that the TEOAE can detect localized cochlear hair cell damage. A temporary detection threshold shift of the TEOAE was observed after the overstimulation at 105 dB SPL, and the threshold shift recovered in 107.5 min on average. In the short-term anoxia trial, the TEOAE amplitude started to decrease 45-90 s after the anoxia and recovered completely when the duration of anoxia was under 1 min. However, the TEOAE amplitude did not recover pre-anoxia values (it remained below 80% of its initial value) after 5 min when the anoxia was over 2 min. These findings demonstrated that the detection threshold and amplitude of the TEOAE were also affected by metabolic changes of the cochlear hair cells. Tone burst-evoked TEOAE are useful for the evaluation of localized histological and functional damage of the cochlear hair cells.