Patterns of Pure Tone Hearing Loss: A Comparative Study of Presbycusis, Multiple Sclerosis, Menière's and Acoustic Neuromn

Abstract

A comparative study has been carried out of the incidence of the specific patterns of hearing loss in subjects with presbycusis, multiple sclerosis, acoustic neuroma and Menière's disease. The descending type of pattern was most frequently seen with almost the same incidence in presbycusis, multiple sclerosis and acoustic neuromas. The flat losses were most frequently seen in Menière's disease. These seemed to be comparable to the flat loss in cases of metabolic presbycusis described by Schuknecht. The low tone losses were almost exclusively seen in Ménière's disease. A suggestion has been made that the descending audiometric curve in presbycusis may possibly be explained by an involvement of the neural elements based on the finding of a similar frequency of descending audiogram in multiple sclerosis and acoustic neuroma.