Comparison of pulsed and continuous tone thresholds in patients with tinnitus

Abstract

A comparison of threshold variation among patients with sensorineural hearing loss and accompanying tinnitus in relation to plused and continuous tone threshold determination was reported. The results indicated that both types of signals obtained comparable threshold levels at all audiometric frequencies tested, and did not vary by more than 1.6 dB. The greatest variation in threshold occurred at those frequencies which corresponds to the reported tinnitus. The latter was observed for 5 patients and did not exceed 5 dB. All threshold variations were within the acceptable criterion of ±5 dB. The majority of patients reported high-pitched tinnitus, and most frequently matched their tinnitus to 3 000 Hz. Over two-thirds of both normal and tinnitus subjects preferred to listen to pulsed tones as opposed to continuous tones during threshold determination. The data obtained from this study did not confirm the assumption that significantly lower threshold are obtained with pulsed tones among patients with tinnitus, although the use of pulsed tones appears to facilitate patient responsiveness.

Key Words:

• Air-conduction audiometry
• Bone-conduction audiometry
• Sensorineural hearing loss
• Pitch of tinnitus