Early diagnosis of hearing loss: otoacoustic emissions evoked by distortion products and pure-tone audiometry: Preliminary findings

Objective: Literary studies underline the effectiveness of distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs), which are not affected by the collaboration of the subject examined, in the early diagnosis of hearing loss. Aim of the study is to compare the objective technique of DPOAEs with respect to the pure-tone audiometry in early diagnosis of hearing loss. Materials and methods: The clinical research was carried out on 852 workers. All subjects underwent pure-tone audiometry, tympanometry and distortion products. Results: The results show: a) a prevalence of subjects with impaired DPOAEs higher than the prevalence of subjects with impaired audiometries in the studied samples; and, after division by gender: b) a prevalence of subjects with impaired DPOAEs higher than the prevalence of subjects with impaired audiometries only in men; c) a prevalence of impaired DPOAEs and of impaired audiometries in men higher than in women. Conclusions: The results suggest the higher effectiveness of DPOAEs compared to pure-tone audiometry in making an early diagnosis of hearing loss.