Medical School of Chinese PLA, Beijing, China.
The First Medical Center, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China.
Acta Otolaryngol. 2022 Jul-Aug;142(7-8):579-584. doi: 10.1080/00016489.2022.2112972. Epub 2022 Aug 30.
While hearing loss is the greatest risk factor associated with developing tinnitus, some tinnitus patients exhibit no hearing loss on conventional pure-tone audiometry (PTA).
This study was developed to assess whether tinnitus patients with normal hearing as measured conventional PTA would exhibit differences from normal controls upon extended high-frequency (EHF) audiometric evaluation.
In total, 102 tinnitus patients were separated into unilateral and bilateral tinnitus groups. Age- and sex-matched controls without tinnitus were enrolled.
No significant differences were observed when comparing EHF audiometry results in the 9-14 kHz range between controls and tinnitus patients, with only left-sided tinnitus ears exhibiting higher hearing thresholds than contralateral ears at 9, 10, and 14 kHz. Relative to normal controls, the hearing thresholds in the 2-8 kHz range for tinnitus ears were significantly increased.
Relative to controls, tinnitus patients with normal hearing did not exhibit any significant hearing loss in the EHF range. Unexpectedly, tinnitus patients with normal hearing exhibited significant hidden hearing loss in the conventional frequency range rather than in the EHF range. For patients with normal hearing, it appears to be unnecessary to conduct EHF examinations to detect hearing loss in the EHF range.
虽然听力损失是导致耳鸣的最大风险因素，但一些耳鸣患者在常规纯音测听（PTA）中没有听力损失。
本研究旨在评估常规 PTA 测量听力正常的耳鸣患者在进行扩展高频（EHF）听力评估时是否会与正常对照者存在差异。
共纳入 102 例耳鸣患者，分为单侧和双侧耳鸣组。同时招募了年龄和性别相匹配的无耳鸣对照组。
对照组和耳鸣患者在 9-14 kHz 范围内的 EHF 听力测试结果无显著差异，仅左侧耳鸣耳在 9、10 和 14 kHz 时的听力阈值高于对侧耳。与正常对照组相比，耳鸣耳在 2-8 kHz 范围内的听力阈值显著升高。
与对照组相比，听力正常的耳鸣患者在 EHF 范围内并未表现出任何明显的听力损失。出乎意料的是，听力正常的耳鸣患者在常规频率范围内表现出显著的隐匿性听力损失，而不是在 EHF 范围内。对于听力正常的患者，似乎没有必要进行 EHF 检查来检测 EHF 范围内的听力损失。
