title: The relationship between auditory threshold and evoked otoacoustic emissions.
abstract: The aim of this study was to compare transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) in normal hearing ears (n = 44) and ears with cochlear hearing loss (HL) to obtain defined data on qualitative and quantitative correlations. In addition, we wanted to determine the reliability with which a clinical examiner could predict a typical, idealized audiometric configuration from TEOAE measurements. In the hearing-impaired subjects (n = 149), a 50% reduction of OAE incidence was caused by a mean HL of 10.5 dB for TEOAE compared to 27 dB SPL for DPOAE. A 90% incidence reduction was found at a mean threshold elevation of 33 dB for TEOAE and 51 dB for DPOAE. Correlation between TEOAE amplitudes and HL was in general rather low (r = -0.1 to -0.5), while DPOAE amplitudes showed a slightly better correlation with HL (r = -0.3 to -0.6). In general, efforts to derive an audiogram from evoked OAE have been more promising for DPOAE than for TEOAE. However, our studies showed that approximately 40% of the ears with HL could be categorized correctly into one of five typical audiometric patterns from TEOAE measurements. Additionally, a cochlear HL in or near the medium frequency range was much more likely to cause a reduction in TEOAE than an isolated low- or high-frequency lesion. Accordingly, TEOAE were often preserved in ears with isolated HL in the high or low frequencies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Tübingen, Germany.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Plinkert
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D003051:Cochlea / Q000502:physiology*; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology; D006311:Hearing Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017084:Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous / Q000502:physiology*