Hearing abilities at ultra-high frequency in patients with tinnitus.
OBJECTIVE
To compare tinnitus patients who have normal hearing between 250 Hz and 8 kHz with normal controls with regard to the ability of each group to hear extended high-frequency pure tone thresholds.


METHODS
We enrolled 18 tinnitus patients, each of whom had a threshold of HL <25 dB and threshold differences of <10 dB between ears at frequencies of 250 and 500 Hz and 1, 2, 4, and 8 kHz. We also enrolled age- and gender-matched normal volunteers (10 ears), for each patient. Extended high frequency pure tone audiometry was performed, and the mean hearing thresholds at 10, 12, 14, and 16 kHz of each tinnitus ear were compared with those of the 10 age- and sex-matched normal ears.


RESULTS
Of the 18 patients with tinnitus, 12 had significantly increased hearing thresholds at more than one of the four high frequencies, compared with the normal group. When we assessed results according to frequency, we found that 8 patients had decreased hearing ability at 10 kHz, 10 at 12 kHz, 8 at 14 kHz, and 4 at 16 kHz.


CONCLUSIONS
Some patients with tinnitus who have normal hearing below 8 kHz have decreased hearing ability at extended high-frequencies. Thus, the proportion of patients with tinnitus who have normal hearing over the entire audible range is smaller than in previous reports.
Shim
Hyun Joon
HJ
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Eulji University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Kim
Sun Ki
SK
Park
Chul Ho
CH
Lee
Sung Hee
SH
Yoon
Sang Won
SW
Ki
A Ram
AR
Chung
Dae Han
DH
Yeo
Seung Geun
SG