Ultra-High Frequency Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions for Detection of Hearing Loss and Tinnitus.

W Wiktor Jedrzejczak,Henryk Skarzynski,Edyta Pilka,Malgorzata Ganc,Krzysztof Kochanek

doi:10.3390/ijerph19042123

Abstract

Several studies have suggested that distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) may be an early marker not only of hearing loss (HL) but also of tinnitus. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether DPOAEs measured up to 16 kHz are affected by the presence of tinnitus. Pure tone thresholds and DPOAEs were measured in two groups: 55 patients with tinnitus and 63 subjects without tinnitus. The subjects were divided into three groups according to their audiometric results—better than 25 dB HL at all tested frequencies from 0.125 to 16 kHz, better than 25 dB up to 8 kHz, and hearing impaired. Receiver operator characteristics (ROCs) were used to test whether DPOAEs could differentiate between normal hearing, hearing loss, and tinnitus. Comparison of tinnitus subjects with the control group, matched accurately according to thresholds, did not yield any significant difference in DPOAEs. However, in both these groups hearing loss was accompanied by a decrease in DPOAEs, specifically, at 2–6 kHz and 16 kHz. The results suggest that any decrease in DPOAEs seems to be related only to hearing loss and there is no additional effect from tinnitus.

Highlights

Tinnitus is the sense of perceiving sound when there is no such sound in the environment
A repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to examine differences in pure tone thresholds as a function of group based on hearing loss (HL), tinnitus presence, and frequency
This work has shown that when tinnitus subjects are matched to a control group with similar pure tone audiometry results, there seems to be no difference in their distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs)

Summary

Introduction

Tinnitus is the sense of perceiving sound when there is no such sound in the environment (reviewed in [1]). It may take the form of pure tones, noise, or other types of sounds. OAEs are low-level sounds that originate from the cochlea and are detectable in the ear canal (reviewed in [3]). Their presence is directly linked to the normal functioning of outer hair cells, so it, seems likely that they are sensitive to such pathological conditions as tinnitus

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