title: Investigation of tinnitus patients in Italy: clinical and audiological characteristics.
abstract: Objective. 312 tinnitus sufferers were studied in order to analyze: the clinical characteristics of tinnitus; the presence of tinnitus-age correlation and tinnitus-hearing loss correlation; the impact of tinnitus on subjects' life and where possible the etiological/predisposing factors of tinnitus. Results. There is a slight predominance of males. The highest percentage of tinnitus results in the decades 61-70. Of the tinnitus sufferers, 197 (63.14%) have a hearing deficit (light hearing loss in 37.18% of cases). The hearing impairment results of sensorineural type in 74.62% and limited to the high frequencies in 58.50%. The tinnitus is referred as unilateral in 59.93%, a pure tone in 66.99% and 10 dB above the hearing threshold in 37.7%. It is limited to high frequencies in 72.10% of the patients with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) while the 88.37% of the patients with high-frequency SNHL have a high-pitched tinnitus (chi(2) = 66.26;P < .005). Conclusion. Hearing status and age represent the principal tinnitus related factors; there is a statistically significant association between high-pitched tinnitus and high-frequency SNHL. There is no significant correlation between tinnitus severity and tinnitus loudness confirming the possibility that neural connection involved in evoking tinnitus-related negative reactions are governed by conditioned reflexes.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Neuroscienze Cliniche (DINeC), Sezione di Otorinolaringoiatria, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Via del Vespro, 129-90127 Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martines
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bentivegna
authors.forename: Fabiola
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Piazza
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Martines
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sciacca
authors.forename: Gioacchino
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Martinciglio