Korean J Otolaryngol-Head Neck Surg.  1997 Aug;40(8):1197-1204.

Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions in Normal and Sensorineural Hearing Loss Ears

• Seo YI
• Yoon TH
• Won JY
• Chung JW
• Lee KS

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Distortion product otoacoustic emissions(DPOAE) are otoacoustic emissions evoked by two pure tones. They are proposed as a frequency specific test of the mechanical properties of the cochlea.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the this study were to investigate of basic properties of DPOAE in normal hearing subjects and correlations between DPOAE amplitudes and conventional pure tone auditory thresholds in patients with sensorineural hearing losses. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The amplitude and growth functions of distortion product otoacoustic emissions(DPOAE) at 2f1-f2, elicited by two primary tones f1 and f2 with a constant frequency ratio f2/f1=1.22 and varing geometric mean values 0.5, 1, 2, 4, and 8kHz, were measured for 20 normal subjects and 50 patients with sensorineural hearing losses.
RESULTS
In normal hearing subjects 1) The average DP audiogram peaked at two frequency ranges, 1 kHz and 8 kHz. 2) In DPOAE amplitudes, inter-subject variability was relatively high, but inter-aural dispersion were remarkably small(correlation coefficent=0.72). In patients with sensorineural hearing loss 3) DPOAE amplitudes were correlated significantly with pure tone auditory thresholds in that higher auditoty thresholds showd lower amplitudes(correlation coefficenct=-0.65 at 1kHz 70dB SPL stimulus, -0.66 at 4kHz 70dB SPL stimulus). 4) Based on the presence or absence of DPOAE, the screening limit values of 50dB HL showed that sensitivity and specificity were 96%, 75% at 1kHz, 97%, 81% at 4kHz with 70 dB SPL stimulus.

Keyword

Distortion product otoacoustic emissions; Sensorineural hearing loss; Pure tone audiometry

MeSH Terms

Auditory Threshold
Cochlea
Ear*
Hearing
Hearing Loss, Sensorineural*
Humans
Mass Screening
Sensitivity and Specificity