OBJECTIVE To investigate the validity of diagnostic pure-tone audiometry in a natural environment using a computer-operated audiometer with insert earphones covered by circumaural earcups incorporating real-time monitoring of environmental noise. DESIGN A within-subject repeated measures design was employed to compare air (250 to 8000 Hz) and bone (250 to 4000 Hz) conduction pure-tone thresho...

INTRODUCTION In ideal listening situations, subjects with normal hearing can easily understand speech, as can many subjects who have a hearing loss. OBJECTIVE To present the validation of the Word Recognition Test in a Free Field in the Presence of Noise in normal-hearing adults. METHODS Sample consisted of 100 healthy adults over 18 years of age with normal hearing. After pure tone audiome...

We analyse the neurootological data of patients attended in the Ear, Nose and Throat (E.N.T.) department of the Centro Hospitalar de Vila Nova de Gaia for a tinnitus problem. We submitted these patients to our neurootological routine evaluation. This approach is justified in a tinnitus patient because the cochleovestibular system is a unit and acts as a whole. We characterise the population tha...

Introduction The paramount goal for subjects with sensory-neural hearing loss is to make as precise a distinction as possible among the different sites in the sensory system where a casual lesion may lie. The usual tests of conventional audiometry· viz., pure tone sensitivity measures; tests of recruitment and abnormal tone decay; Bekesy audiometry; speech audiometry; stapedius reflex measureme...

Cigarette smoking is a well known health problem affecting various body organs. There is a dearth of literature on early changes in auditory functioning at high frequency due to smoking. Hence, the present study aimed to investigate the audiological parameters for 100 chronic smokers. Their results were compared to 50 non smokers. Audiological test battery included conventional pure tone audiom...

Auditory Neuropathy coexisting with bilateral conductive hearing loss has not been reported so far .This case report highlights how the underlying Auditory Neuropathy can be unmasked by Speech Audiometry and that subsequently changes the entire management. Unlike Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA), Speech Audiometry is not necessarily done always for all patients, especially in developing countries and...