Otoacoustic emission in tinnitus patients

Authors:

• Edward Ozimek,
• Andrzej Jerzy Wicher

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of tinnitus and total effect of tinnitus and the hearing loss function on the distortion product otoacoustic emission. Tinnitus patients were selected to exhibit normal hearing and such tinnitus patients who exhibited the increasing or notch-like sensorineural hearing loss. It was found that the cochlear hearing activity expressed in terms of DPOAE response differed between tinnitus patients and normal-hearing subjects. The DPOAE levels in the tinnitus patients with normal hearing threshold have been lower than those in the nontinnitus subjects. The differences depended on the frequency and the age of the patients suggesting the effect of presbyacusis.