Distortion-product otoacoustic emissions in middle-aged subjects with normal versus potentially presbyacusic high-frequency hearing loss
Abstract
Distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) are still undergoing evaluation for clinical use. Although the effects of ageing on otoacoustic emissions have been studied quite extensively in the past, DPOAE response-growth or input-output (I-O) measures, which are well suited as an objective method for monitoring cochlear function at specific frequencies, have been less thoroughly examined. The aim of the present study was to assess the 2f1-f2 DPOAEs in a clinical setting in order to examine the response of 20 normally hearing middle-aged adults and to compare the results with those of 20 people of the same age with ears of sensorineural high-frequency hearing loss (HL). The experiment consisted of two stages. First, the DPOAE-gram was recorded in 1-4-octave steps at a stimulus level of 70 dB SPL over a frequency range of the f2 primary tone which extended from 1.001 to 6.299 kHz. Secondly, in order to elicit DPOAE I-O functions, the two primary stimuli were presented at equilevel intensities ranging from 20 to 71 dB SPL. The stimulus-level step size was 3 dB. The I-O functions were recorded at five separate DPOAE frequencies, with the f2 frequency most closely related to the clinical audiogram (f2 = 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 4.0 and ...Continue Reading
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