Clinical use of otoacoustic emissions

The Egyptian Journal of Otolaryngology

Objectives Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) are an important part of the audiological test battery and have many clinical uses. This study aims to determine the amplitude changes in the test–retest condition of distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) and transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs), which are widely used in clinical settings. Design DPOAE and TEOAE measurements were taken in 110 ears of 55 adults aged 18–35 years with normal hearing during three sessions. The repeatability of the measurements was evaluated by very short-term measurements taken 20 min after the first measurement and by short-term measurements taken 20 days after the first measurement. Results There was no statistically significant difference between the three measurements in which DPOAE and TEOAE amplitudes were evaluated. The weakest reliability for TEOAEs was determined at frequencies of 1.0 kHz and 1.5 kHz, and the weakest reliability for DPOAEs was determined at 6728 Hz. Conclusions The ...

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2007

With the aim of investigating the capability of otoacoustic emission (OAE) in the detection of low levels of noise-induced hearing loss, audiometric and otoacoustic data of young workers (age: 18–35) exposed to different levels of industrial noise have been recorded. These subjects are participating in a long-term longitudinal study, in which audiometric, exposure (both professional and extra-professional), and OAE data (transient evoked and distortion product) will be collected for a period of several years. All measurements have been performed, during routine occupational health surveillance, with a standard clinical apparatus and acquisition procedure, which can be easily used in the occupational safety practice. The first study was focused on the correlation between transient evoked OAE signal-to-noise ratio and distortion product (DPOAE) OAE level and the audiometric threshold, investigating the causes of the rather large intersubject variability of the OAE levels. The data ana...

Applied Sciences, 2021

Otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) are currently used as a valuable audiological test or as a hearing screening tool. There are many commercially available OAE recording systems that are used both for clinical practice and for research. However, there is little information in the literature comparing their performance in detecting hearing loss. The purpose of this prospective, nonrandomized, and controlled study was to evaluate the screening performance obtained from recent and older versions of the Otometrics Accuscreen OAE screening device in comparison with the Otodynamics ILO-292 OAE system, which has been used as the gold standard. Testing included otoscopic assessment, pure tone audiometry, tympanometry, and transiently evoked OAE (TEOAE) recordings. There was about a 77% agreement between the two versions of the Accuscreen device. Agreement between the two Accuscreen devices and the ILO was approximately 70% for the old and 80% for the new. The newer version of Accuscreen seems to ...

Ear and Hearing, 1995

The association between audiometric hearing thresholds and click-evoked otoacoustic emission (CEOAE) spectral properties was examined in 129 adult subjects with and without a noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Subjects were grouped according to their "beginning of hearing loss frequency" and their exposure to hazardous noise. Emissions were recorded with an ILOSS Otodynamic Analyzer (Version 2.9) used in the default mode. CEOAE levels decreased as the hearing threshold increased at each of the test frequencies (1,2,3, and

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2007

It has been proposed that the clinical accuracy of distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) is affected by the interaction of distortion and reflection sources contributing to the response. This study evaluated changes in dichotomous-decision test performance and threshold-prediction accuracy when DPOAE source contribution was controlled. Data were obtained from 205 normal and impaired ears with L 2 ranging from 0 to 80 dB SPL and f 2 = 2 and 4 kHz. Data were collected for control conditions (no suppressor, f 3) and with f 3 presented at 3 levels that previously had been shown to reduce the reflection-source contribution. The results indicated that controlling source contribution with a suppressor did not improve diagnostic accuracy (as reflected by ROC curve area) and frequently resulted in poorer test performance compared to control conditions. Likewise, correlations between DPOAE and behavioral thresholds were not strengthened when using the suppressors to control source contribution. While improvements in test accuracy were observed for a subset of subjects (normal ears with the smallest DPOAEs and impaired ears with the largest DPOAEs), the lack of improvement for the larger, unselected subject group suggests that DPOAEs should be recorded in the clinic without attempting to control the source contribution with a suppressor.

2017

The transmission of sound through the ear is a mechanical process from the movement of the tympanic membrane, through the middle ear ossicles and the oval window causing a travelling wave in the cochlear fluid (perilymph) and along the basilar membrane. The outer hair cells (OHC) on the basilar membrane are part of this mechanical process as they contract and expand, a process named sensory transmission, necessary for the further transmission through the inner hair cells (IHC) named sensory transduction (Kemp, 2003). This active process elicits both an afferent signal to the auditory nerve and an efferent signal travelling back through the middle ear to the outer ear canal where it can be detected. Each part of the basilar mem-brane has a maximal sensitivity for a speci-fic frequency with the highest frequencies closest to the oval window. This means that higher frequency responses will have the shortest transmission time back to the outer ear canal. Types of OAEs

Background: In the present study otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) were used to evaluate the hearing of partial deafness subjects who had normal hearing up to 0.5 kHz and severe hearing loss above that frequency. The purpose of the study was to detect OAEs at 0.5 kHz and determine whether broad-band or band-limited values of OAE parameters were better for distinguishing ears with OAEs from those without. Material and Methods: The study group consisted of 15 subjects with high-frequency hearing loss above 0.5 kHz. For reference, a group of 15 subjects with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss over the whole of the 0.125–8 kHz range was used. In both groups, click-evoked OAEs (CEOAEs) and tone burst-evoked OAEs (TBOAEs) of 1 or 0.5 kHz were evaluated using a reproducibility parameter, taking into consideration broad-band, octave, and half-octave band values. Results: In the study group the best results were obtained by using 0.5 kHz TBOAEs. Clicks and 1 kHz tone bursts generally did not produce a response at 0.5 kHz. TBOAEs at 0.5 kHz enabled the separation of partially deaf ears from ears with severe hearing impairment. Half-octave band filtering yielded the best results; however, it was only slightly better than broadband and octave band filtering. Conclusions: The results of the study indicate that the 0.5 kHz TBOAE is a better stimulus than CEOAE and 1 kHz TBOAE when cochlear function at low frequency needs to be tested. The half-octave band seems the best choice in order to get frequency-specific information. However the results should be treated with caution since the studied groups were relatively small. Key words: otoacoustic emissions • partial deafness treatment • reproducibility

International Journal of Audiology, 2010

The aim of this study was to investigate the profile of transient evoked and distortion product otoacoustic emissions in patients of otosclerosis and to assess any change in otoacoustic emission profile after surgical intervention. This prospective study under tertiary referral centre setting included 31 patients suffering from otosclerosis, who underwent surgical intervention in the form of stapedotomy. Air-bone gap on pure tone audiometry, preoperative profile and postoperative profile of transient evoked and distortion product otoacoustic emissions at 1 month and 3 months were the main outcome measures of the subjects. The patients demonstrated subjective improvement in hearing and significant closure of air-bone gap on pure tone audiometry. There was statistically significant improvement in amplitudes of both transientevoked and distortion product emissions in the low frequency range, after surgery. Cochran's Q test was applied to compare the statistical significances among preoperative values, 1 month values and 3 months values for the recorded otoacoustic emissions. It was observed that despite significant improvement in hearing, OAEs were not detected in all patients and correlation with behavioural thresholds was poor. As a result of these findings, the following conclusions can be drawn. The profile of otoacoustic emissions in patients of otosclerosis is variable and does not correlate with hearing thresholds. All patients showed improvement in amplitudes of OAEs after surgical intervention and there was further improvement between the followup profile at 1 month and 3 months, but this was not found to be statistically significant. However, further studies with larger number of patients of otosclerosis can perhaps establish baseline profile of the evoked OAEs and the effect of fixation of stapes on reverse transmission of OAEs.

Journal of the American Academy of Audiology, 2003

This study compares the performance of the Quickscreen and Default protocols of the ILO-96 Otodynamics Analyzer in recording transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) from adults using clinical decision analysis. Data were collected from 25 males (mean age = 29.0 years, SD = 6.8) and 35 females (mean age = 28.1 years, SD = 9.6). The results showed that the mean signal-to-noise ratios obtained from the Quickscreen were significantly greater than those from the Default protocol at 1, 2, and 4 kHz. The comparison of the performance of the two protocols, based on the results using receiver operating characteristics curves, revealed a higher performance of the Quickscreen than the Default protocol at 1 and 4 kHz but not at 2 kHz. In view of the enhanced performance of the Quickscreen over the Default protocol in general, the routine use of the Default protocol for testing adults in audiology clinics should be reconsidered.

Acoustic Emission - Research and Applications, 2013