A modified pure tone audiometry technique for medico-legal assessment.
A modified method of pure tone audiometry (PTA) in which the auditory threshold is approached from silence in ascending steps, with tone presentations of 1-4 seconds and interval durations of 1.5-5 seconds was assessed against the British Society of Audiology (BSA) method of PTA in terms of its ability to establish valid thresholds in cases of non-organic hearing loss, prevalent in medico-legal testing. The results reveal that the modified technique of PTA is a valid threshold measurement for honest subjects, and yields less non-organic overlay than the standard method of PTA in cases of non-organic hearing loss.
Cooper
J
J
Department of Clinical Engineering, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, UK.
Lightfoot
G
G
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone / Q000379:methods*; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D003638:Deafness / Q000175:diagnosis*; D005260:Female; D006296:Health Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011897:Random Allocation