Cochlear dysfunction in "normal-hearing" patients with history of noise exposure.
Cochlear integrity was assessed in patients with normal hearing but history of noise exposure by means of aural-overload measurements and discrimination of high-frequency words in noise. Results show that previously noise-exposed subjects exhibit statistically poorer discrimination than nonexposed subjects. Correlation studies between speech discrimination and aural-overload threshold were also indicative of cochlear damage in the noise-exposed subjects.
D000328:Adult; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D003051:Cochlea / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests