Hidden hearing loss in tinnitus with normal hearing thresholds

2016 ◽  
Vol 139 (4) ◽  
pp. 2075-2075
Author(s):  
Brandon T. Paul ◽  
Ian Bruce ◽  
Larry Roberts
2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elif Tugba Sarac ◽  
Bilgehan Boke ◽  
Semsettin Okuyucu

Introduction: Sickle cell anemia is a disease characterized by a wide vaso-occlusive incident from micro-vascular incident to muscularactivity. The cochlear function can also get affected by this vaso-occlusion. Objective: It is aimed at determining what kind of effects sickle cell anemia has on hearing and balance system. Methods: This study has been conducted on 46 patients with sickle cell anemia and 45 healthy individuals. For all participants, their pure tone hearing thresholds and videonystagmography (VNG) findings have been determined in 17 frequencies between 125–16.000 Hz. Results: All hearing thresholds between 125 and 16,000 Hz, pure tone averages of patients with sickle cell anemia have been found statistically significant to be higher than the corresponding values in the control group(p < 0.05). The normal hearing rate of patients with sickle cell anemia has been determined to be 71.1% conductive hearing loss (CHL) to be 4.4%, sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) to be 22.2%, and mixed type hearing loss to be 2.2% in right ear; the normal hearing rate has been determined to be 71.1%, CHL to be 2.2%, SNHL to be 22.2%, and mixed type hearing loss to be 4.4% in left ear. Statistically significant difference has not been found between head shake, spontaneous nystagmus, optokinetic, tracking test batteries, static and dynamic positional tests used in VNG, saccade accuracy and saccade peak velocity, which are saccadic test findings of 2 groups. However, saccadic latency, which is a saccadic test finding, has been determined to be longer in patients with sickle cell anemia in comparison to the control group. Conclusion: While sickle cell anemia causes hearing deficits, it does not have any effect on the central or peripheral vestibular system.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suyi Hu ◽  
Lukas Anschuetz ◽  
Deborah A. Hall ◽  
Marco Caversaccio ◽  
Wilhelm Wimmer

Residual inhibition, i.e. the temporary suppression of tinnitus loudness after acoustic stimulation, is a frequently observed phenomenon that may have prognostic value for clinical applications. However, it is unclear in which subjects residual inhibition is more likely and how stable the suppression can be induced repeatedly. The primary aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of hearing loss and tinnitus chronicity on residual inhibition susceptibility. The secondary aim was to investigate the short-term repeatability of residual inhibition. Residual inhibition was assessed in 74 tinnitus subjects with 60-second narrow-band noise stimuli in 10 consecutive trials. The subjects were assigned to groups according to their depth of suppression (substantial residual inhibition vs. comparator group). In addition, a categorization in normal hearing and hearing loss groups, related to the degree of hearing loss at the frequency corresponding to the tinnitus pitch, was made. Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with susceptibility to residual inhibition. Repeatability of residual inhibition was assessed using mixed-effects ordinal regression including post-stimulus time and repetitions as factors. Tinnitus chronicity was not associated with residual inhibition for subjects with hearing loss, while a statistically significant negative association between tinnitus chronicity and residual inhibition susceptibility was observed in normal hearing subjects (odds ratio: 0.63; CI: 0.41 to 0.83; p = 0.0076). Moreover, repeated states of suppression can be stably induced. Our results suggest that long chronicity and residual inhibition susceptibility could be indicators for hidden lesions along the auditory pathway in subjects with normal hearing thresholds at their tinnitus frequency.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Vielsmeier ◽  
Astrid Lehner ◽  
Jürgen Strutz ◽  
Thomas Steffens ◽  
Peter M. Kreuzer ◽  
...  

Objective. The majority of tinnitus patients suffer from hearing loss. But a subgroup of tinnitus patients show normal hearing thresholds in the conventional pure-tone audiometry (125 Hz–8 kHz). Here we explored whether the results of the high frequency audiometry (>8 kHz) provide relevant additional information in tinnitus patients with normal conventional audiometry by comparing those with normal and pathological high frequency audiometry with respect to their demographic and clinical characteristics.Subjects and Methods. From the database of the Tinnitus Clinic at Regensburg we identified 75 patients with normal hearing thresholds in the conventional pure-tone audiometry. We contrasted these patients with normal and pathological high-frequency audiogram and compared them with respect to gender, age, tinnitus severity, pitch, laterality and duration, comorbid symptoms and triggers for tinnitus onset.Results. Patients with pathological high frequency audiometry were significantly older and had higher scores on the tinnitus questionnaires in comparison to patients with normal high frequency audiometry. Furthermore, there was an association of high frequency audiometry with the laterality of tinnitus.Conclusion. In tinnitus patients with normal pure-tone audiometry the high frequency audiometry provides useful additional information. The association between tinnitus laterality and asymmetry of the high frequency audiometry suggests a potential causal role for the high frequency hearing loss in tinnitus etiopathogenesis.


Author(s):  
Diane M. Scott

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an autosomal recessively inherited group of red blood cell disorders. It is more commonly found in African Americans and Hispanics in the United States. The sickle-shaped cells characteristic of the disease cause physiological problems, including hemolytic anemia and vaso-occlusion. Research has linked hearing loss to sickle cell disease. Studies have shown that children and adults with sickle cell disease may have higher rates of sensorineural and central auditory hearing impairment. This case study examines hidden hearing loss in an African American boy with SCD who presents with normal hearing thresholds. It also discusses the role of audiologists in the care of individuals with sickle cell disease and hearing loss.


2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (12) ◽  
pp. 3642-3655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carly C. M. Alicea ◽  
Karen A. Doherty

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to compare the motivation to change in relation to hearing problems in adults with normal hearing thresholds but who report hearing problems and that of adults with a mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Factors related to their motivation were also assessed.MethodThe motivation to change in relation to self-reported hearing problems was measured using the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (McConnaughy, Prochaska, & Velicer, 1983). The relationship between objective and subjective measures and an adult's motivation was examined.ResultsThe level of hearing handicap did not differ significantly between adults with normal hearing who reported problems hearing in background noise and adults who had a mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Hearing handicap, personal distress, and minimization of hearing loss were factors significantly related to motivation. Age, degree of hearing loss, speech-in-noise scores, working memory, and extended high-frequency average thresholds were not significantly related to their motivation.ConclusionsAdults with normal hearing thresholds but self-reported hearing problems had the same level of hearing handicap and were equally motivated to take action for their hearing problems as age-matched adults with a mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss. Hearing handicap, personal distress, and minimization of hearing loss were most strongly correlated with an individual's motivation to change.


1995 ◽  
Vol 109 (5) ◽  
pp. 431-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uday Kale ◽  
Mohamed El-Naggar ◽  
Maurice Hawthorne

AbstractVerbal auditory agnosia implies the failure to recognize sounds in a patient who is nevertheless not deaf. We present a child referred to the ENT outpatients for suspected hearing loss investigation. At one point she had grommets inserted on the basis of a flat tympanogram but with no effect. All hearing tests, including electrocochleography and distraction tests, revealed normal hearing thresholds. At the age of three years and three months, and on direct questioning of the parents, we discovered that the child responded remarkably well to music. Paediatric neurologists made the diagnosis of verbal auditory agnosia. The condition is very similar to another acquired language disorder called Landau-Kleffner syndrome. It is unusual for such a case to present primarily to an ENT surgeon.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eyyup Kara ◽  
◽  
Kubra Aydin ◽  
A. Alperen Akbulut ◽  
Sare Nur Karakol ◽  
...  

2017 ◽  
Vol 96 (10-11) ◽  
pp. E47-E52
Author(s):  
Raman Wadhera ◽  
Sharad Hernot ◽  
Sat Paul Gulati ◽  
Vijay Kalra

We performed a prospective interventional study to evaluate correlations between hearing thresholds determined by pure-tone audiometry (PTA) and auditory steady-state response (ASSR) testing in two types of patients with hearing loss and a control group of persons with normal hearing. The study was conducted on 240 ears—80 ears with conductive hearing loss, 80 ears with sensorineural hearing loss, and 80 normal-hearing ears. We found that mean threshold differences between PTA results and ASSR testing at different frequencies did not exceed 15 dB in any group. Using Pearson correlation coefficient calculations, we determined that the two responses correlated better in patients with sensorineural hearing loss than in those with conductive hearing loss. We conclude that measuring ASSRs can be an excellent complement to other diagnostic methods in determining hearing thresholds.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maral Budak ◽  
Karl Grosh ◽  
Gabriel Corfas ◽  
Michal Zochowski ◽  
Victoria Booth

AbstractHidden hearing loss (HHL) is an auditory neuropathy characterized by normal hearing thresholds but reduced amplitude of the sound-evoked auditory nerve compound action potential (CAP). It has been proposed that in humans HHL leads to speech discrimination and intelligibility deficits, particularly in noisy environments. Animal models originally indicated that HHL can be caused by moderate noise exposures or aging, and that loss of inner hair cell (IHC) synapses could be its cause. A recent study provided evidence that transient loss of cochlear Schwann cells also causes permanent auditory deficits in mice which have characteristics of HHL. Histological analysis of the cochlea after auditory nerve remyelination showed a permanent disruption of the myelination patterns at the heminode of type I spiral ganglion neuron (SGN) peripheral terminals, suggesting that this defect could be contributing to HHL. To shed light on the mechanisms of different HHL scenarios and to test their impact on type I SGN activity, we constructed a reduced biophysical model for a population of SGN peripheral axons. We found that the amplitudes of simulated sound-evoked SGN CAPs are lower and have greater latencies when the heminodes are disorganized, i.e. they are placed at different distances from the hair cell rather than at the same distance as seen in the normal cochlea. Thus, our model confirms that disruption of the position of the heminode causes desynchronization of SGN spikes leading to a loss of temporal resolution and reduction of the sound-evoked SGN CAP. We also simulated synaptopathy by removing high threshold IHC-SGN synapses and found that the amplitude of simulated sound-evoked SGN CAPs decreases while latencies remain unchanged, corresponding to what has been observed in noise exposed animals. This model can be used to further study the effects of synaptopathy or demyelination on auditory function.Author summaryHidden hearing loss is an auditory disorder caused by noise exposure, aging or peripheral neuropathy which is estimated to affect 12-15% of the world’s population. It is a ‘hidden’ disorder because subjects have normal hearing thresholds, i.e., the condition cannot be revealed by standard audiological tests, but they report difficulties in understanding speech in noisy environments. Studies on animal models suggest two possible pathogenic mechanisms for hidden hearing loss: (1) loss of synapses between inner hair cells and auditory nerve fibers, and (2) disruption of auditory-nerve myelin. In this study, we constructed a computational model of sound-evoked auditory neuron fiber activity and auditory nerve compound action potential to understand how each one of these mechanisms affects nerve transmission. We show that disruption of auditory-nerve myelin desynchronizes sound-evoked auditory neuron spiking, decreasing the amplitude and increasing the latency of the compound action potential. In addition, elongation of the initial axon segment may cause spike generation failure leading to decreased spiking probability. In contrast, the effect of synapse loss is only to decrease the probability of firing, thus reducing the compound action potential amplitude without disturbing its latency. This model, which accurately represents the in vivo findings, could be useful to make further predictions on the consequences of HHL and extend it to explore the impact of synaptopathy and myelinopathy on hearing.


2017 ◽  
Vol 141 (5) ◽  
pp. 3814-3814 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony J. Brammer ◽  
Gongqiang Yu ◽  
James J. Grady ◽  
Kourosh Parham ◽  
Martin G. Cherniack ◽  
...  

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