Study on Short Term Test-Retest Reliability of High Frequency Audiometry

Park, Jae Yeong; Jung, Hww Seob; Park, Hyang Mi; Moon, In Hee; Jun, Byung Hoon

Abstract

Although high frequency threshold has been regarded as a early detector of cochlear damage, there has been no standardized system for calibration or measurement of high frequency threshold. Compared measurement of the high frequency(10-20KHz) with measurement of the low frequency(250-8000Hz), it is difficult to establish high frequency normative values because thresholds vary widely with age, calibration system and kinds of audiometer, etc.... But short term test-retest may not be influenced by calibration variance. So we tried to obtain intrasubjective test-retest threshold difference of high frequency threshold difference within 4 weeks intervals. 47 ears of normal low frequency hearing(250-8000Hz) young adults were tested with commercial high frequency audiometer(Beltone 2000) and Sennheiser HD 250 linear headphone. The results were as follows: 1) Test-retest difference within 10dB SPL was more than 89% in every frequency. 2) Test-retest difference within 15dB SPL was more than 96% in every frequency. Results of this study suggest that acceptable range of intrasubjective difference of high frequency threshold within 4 weeks intervals is 15dB SPL.