title: The role of high-frequency audiometry in early detection of ototoxicity.
abstract: Ototoxicity is one of the unwanted side-effects of a number of medical drugs. As ototoxicity appears to be most pronounced in the higher frequencies, it can be assessed at an earlier stage by using high-frequency audiometry from 8 to 20 kHz. We have investigated the precision of these measurements. In spite of inaccuracies of headphone positioning, which may influence especially the high-frequency thresholds, standard deviations for frequencies above 8 kHz were obtained that were nearly as small as for audiometry up to 8 kHz. Age-related reference curves for the higher frequencies are presented. The results on 100 ears of patients treated with platinum-derivatives show the importance of high-frequency audiometry for the early detection of ototoxicity.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001299:Audiometry; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000187:drug effects; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002945:Cisplatin / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006316:Hearing Loss, High-Frequency / Q000139:chemically induced; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D002945:Cisplatin