title: Music students: conventional hearing thresholds and at high frequencies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Research has shown that hearing loss in musicians may cause difficulty in timbre recognition and tuning of instruments.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the hearing thresholds from 250 Hz to 16,000 Hz in a group of music students and compare them to a non-musician group in order to determine whether high-frequency audiometry is a useful tool in the early detection of hearing impairment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Study design was a retrospective observational cohort. Conventional and high-frequency audiometry was performed in 42 music students (Madsen Itera II audiometer and TDH39P headphones for conventional audiometry, and HDA 200 headphones for high-frequency audiometry).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 42 students, 38.1% were female students and 61.9% were male students, with a mean age of 26 years. At conventional audiometry, 92.85% had hearing thresholds within normal limits; but even within the normal limits, the worst results were observed in the left ear for all frequencies, except for 4000 Hz; compared to the non-musician group, the worst results occurred at 500 Hz in the left ear, and at 250 Hz, 6000 Hz, 9000 Hz, 10,000 Hz, and 11,200 Hz in both the ears.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The periodic evaluation of high-frequency thresholds may be useful in the early detection of hearing loss in musicians.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil. Electronic address: debora.luders@yahoo.com.br.
authors.forename: Débora
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lüders
authors.affiliation: Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil.
authors.forename: Cláudia Giglio de Oliveira
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.affiliation: Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil.
authors.forename: Adriana Bender de Moreira
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Lacerda
authors.affiliation: Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ângela
authors.initials: Â
authors.lastname: Ribas
authors.affiliation: Universidade Estadual do Centro-Oeste (UNICENTRO), Guarapuava, PR, Brazil.
authors.forename: Juliana de
authors.initials: Jd
authors.lastname: Conto
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013334:Students; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Audiometria; Audiometry; Audição; Estudantes; Hearing; Hearing loss; Music; Música; Perda auditiva; Students