title: Dead regions in the cochlea at 4 kHz in elderly adults: relation to absolute threshold, steepness of audiogram, and pure-tone average.
abstract: The aims of this study were (1) to investigate the prevalence of dead regions (DRs) at 4 kHz in elderly people with hearing loss and (2) to determine the extent to which the presence/absence of a DR can be predicted from the absolute threshold, the slope of the audiogram, or the pure-tone average (PTA) hearing loss at 0.5, 1, and 2 kHz. DRs were assessed for 98 ears with absolute thresholds between 60 and 85 dB HL at 4 kHz using the threshold equalizing noise test. Thirty-six ears had a DR at 4 kHz. There was no statistically significant difference in the slope of the audiogram or PTA between ears with and without DRs. However, the mean absolute threshold at 4 kHz was significantly higher for the group with DRs than for the group without DRs. The prevalence of DRs exceeded 50% for hearing losses greater than 70 dB.
authors.affiliation: Audiology Department, Ealing Hospital, Southall, London, UK. hashir.aazh@nhs.net
authors.forename: Hashir
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Aazh
authors.forename: Brian C J
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Moore
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone / Q000379:methods*; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D003051:Cochlea / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015834:Cochlear Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise; D010470:Perceptual Masking; D015995:Prevalence; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index