Authors: Sebastian Hoth Katrin Gudmundsdottir Peter Plinkert
Publish Date: 2009/09/25
Volume: 267, Issue: 5, Pages: 679-690
Abstract
The amplitude of otoacoustic emissions OAE is known to decrease with increasing age but it is still unclear whether this is due to aging alone or to agerelated hearing loss This study describes the exploration of a large database 5142 patients from 04 to 898 years collected in a routine clinical testing Reliable pure tone audiograms transitory evoked otoacoustic emissions TEOAE and distortion product otoacoustic emissions DPOAE recordings were available from 5424 ears without conductive loss acute sudden deafness or retrocochlear disorder From this database group 1 with behavioral thresholds of 10 dB HL or better at all frequencies from 1 to 4 kHz and group 2 with ageaccordant thresholds after ISO 7029 were formed In both groups the OAE amplitude decreased with increasing age but in group 1 the effect was significant only for DPOAE recorded at 3 and 4 kHz In group 2 the loss of amplitude was steeper and highly significant for TEOAE as well as DPOAE at all frequencies but most pronounced at high frequencies These findings support the hypothesis that the reduction of OAE amplitude with increasing age is primarily caused by agelinked hearing loss and not by aging alone
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