Cochlear microphonic audiometry: a new hearing test for objective diagnosis of deafness.
CONCLUSIONS
Objective audiometric tests could constitute a valuable tool for detection of deafness. This could be especially useful in children (universal newborn hearing screening) and non-collaborative patients, who are especially difficult candidates for classic audiometry. The cochlear microphonic audiometry (CMA) technique offers the possibility of obtaining objective audiometric profiles, highly correlated with those obtained by pure tone audiometry (PTA). Therefore, CMA could be used as an alternative test to obtain the audiometric profile of these patients.


OBJECTIVE
The main purpose of the present study was to demonstrate that CMA provides objective audiometric profiles by avoiding active participation by the patient. Subjects and methods. CMA specific equipment, improved for non-invasive recording of cochlear microphonic potentials, was used. This tool plots the recordings obtained as the classic audiogram. Verification of the method was carried out in adult patients by comparing the PTA with the CMA audiometric profiles obtained for each patient.


RESULTS
Our findings showed that audiometric profiles obtained from CMA are highly correlated, without statistical differences, to those obtained with PTA. More than 81% of patients explored (91.67% at 250 Hz) exhibited differences below 10 dB(HL) between tests at all exploration frequencies, while a low number of cases showed differences over 20 dB(HL).
Poch-Broto
Joaquin
J
ENT Service, Madrid, Spain.
Carricondo
Francisco
F
Bhathal
Beatriz
B
Iglesias
Mari-Cruz
MC
López-Moya
Julio
J
Rodríguez
Fernando
F
Sanjuán
Julio
J
Gil-Loyzaga
Pablo
P
D000328:Adult; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone / Q000295:instrumentation*; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D003055:Cochlear Microphonic Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D003638:Deafness / Q000175:diagnosis*; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D004867:Equipment Design; D006314:Hearing Loss, Conductive / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013223:Statistics as Topic