Prevalence of cochlear dead regions in different clinical populations

Prevalence of cochlear dead regions was investigated in sixty-two adults with sensorineural hearing loss. The aims of this study were to 1) assess the prevalence of cochlear dead regions in the population of people with sensorineural hearing loss; 2) assess the prevalence of cochlear dead regions in three sub-populations of people with sensorineural hearing loss: Group 1 was subjects with noise-induced hearing loss (n=15), Group 2 was subjects with otologic diseases associated with sensorineural hearing loss (n=8), and Group 3 was subjects who self-refer to a hearing aid clinic (n=39); 3) relate the presence or absence of cochlear dead regions to absolute threshold, slope of the audiogram, and pure tone average. The threshold-equalizing noise (TEN) test (HL) was used to assess the presence or absence of dead regions. The results suggest: 1) Prevalence of cochlear dead regions was 14.5% among subjects. Prevalence by ear was 10.7%. 2) Classifying by subject, the prevalence in the noise-induced hearing loss group was 13%. Prevalence in the otologic-disease group was 0%. Prevalence in the self-refer group was 18%. These results need to be interpreted with caution due to the small sample size and differences in group sizes. 3) Absolute thresholds at 4 kHz tended to be higher in the subjects with dead regions. Presence or absence of dead regions was not related to slope of the audiogram or pure tone average.Medicine, Faculty ofAudiology and Speech Sciences, School ofGraduat