Diagnostic significance of the combination of DPOAE growth functions and categorial loudness scaling for the differential diagnosis of cochlear and retrocochlear functional disorders

According to the epidermiological study “HÖRSTAT“ from 2017, approximately 16.2% of adults in Germany are hard of hearing according to the criteria of the World Health Organisation (von Gablenz et al. 2017). Of these, over 90% of hearing loss is generally due to sensorineural hearing loss (Tyagi et al. 2019). It is expected that demographic development causes this prevalence to increase by 1% per five-year period (von Gablenz et al. 2017). Therefore, differentiation and classification of inner ear hearing loss is of crucial importance for clinical practice. In order to classify hearing loss, the pure tone audiogram is still the gold standard; at the same time loudness growth functions derived from categorial loudness scaling (CLS) and DPOAE growth functions are under discussion but are not yet widely used in practice. In the present study, 225 data sets of patients were prospectively recorded, each of which included a tone audiogram, as well as categorial loudness functions and the DPOAE growth functions at all PTA4 frequencies. The loudness function proved to be particularly suitable for substituting the pure tone audiogram (r  = 0.734), while the DPOAE growth function showed other strong influencing factors (r  = 0.378). Based on these comparisons, an automatic classifier for the severity of hearing loss was created and tested. These examinations showed that pure tone audiogram, categorial loudness function and DPOAE growth functions are in principle suitable for the assessment of sensorineural hearing loss. Due to their individual methodological advantages, they open up the possibility of being a helpful tool for diagnostics in patients who are unable or unwilling to cooperate.

Univ.-Prof. Dr. med. habil. Christoph Arens

Publication History

Article published online:
24 May 2022