OAE Profile in Individuals with Tinnitus having Normal Hearing Sensitivity

Abstract

The present study was aimed to establish an OAE profile in individuals with tinnitus having normal hearing sensitivity. Ninety individuals with normal hearing sensitivity participated in the study, of whom forty five had tinnitus. SOAEs, TEOAEs, DPOAEs and contralateral suppression of TEOAEs were recorded in all the ninety individuals. Tinnitus present in the 45 individuals (clinical group) was characterized using the psycho- acoustic measures of tinnitus like pitch matching and loudness matching. Results showed that, in individuals with tinnitus, mean TEOAE and DPOAE amplitude was significantly poorer at all frequencies than the individuals without tinnitus. On the other hand, the frequency of occurrence of SOAEs was almost same in both the groups. The mean SOAE frequency and the amplitude also did not differ significantly between the groups. Results in the contralateral suppression of TEOAEs showed that only 29% of ears in the clinical group had presence of contralateral suppression of TEOAEs, while this percentage was about 76.6% in the control group. There was a small positive correlation between loudness of the tinnitus and the DPOAE having maximum amplitude. Thus the absolute amplitude of OAE may be clinical indicator of cochlear damage in individuals with tinnitus having normal hearing sensitivity.