Background:Intact hearing is essential for medical students and physicians for communicating with patients and appreciating internal sounds with a stethoscope. With the increased use of (PMSs), they are exposed to high sound levels and are at a risk of developing hearing loss. The effect of long term personal music system (PMS) usage on auditory sensitivity has been well established. Our study has reported the immediate and short term effect of PMS usage on hearing especially among medical professionals.Objective:To assess the effect of short term PMS usage on distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) among medical professionals.Materials and Method:34 medical students within the age range of 17–22 years who were regular users of PMS participated in the study. All participants had hearing thresholds <15 dBHL at audiometric octave frequencies. Baseline DPOAEs were measured in all participants after 18 h of non-usage of PMS. One week later DPOAEs were again measured after two hours of continuous listening to PMS. DPOAEs were measured within the frequency range of 2 to 12 kHz with a resolution of 12 points per octave. Output sound pressure level of the PMS of each participant was measured in HA-1 coupler and it was converted to free field SPL using the transformations of RECD and REUG.Results:Paired sample t test was used to investigate the main effect of short term music listening on DPOAE amplitudes. Analysis revealed no significant main effect of music listening on DPOAE amplitudes at the octave frequencies between 2 to 4 KHz (t67 = −1.02, P = 0.31) and 4 to 8 KHz (t67 = 0.24, P = 0.81). However, there was a small but statistically significant reduction in DPOAE amplitude (t67 = 2.10, P = 0.04) in the frequency range of 9 to 12 kHz following short term usage of PMS. The mean output sound pressure level of the PMS was 98.29.Conclusion:Short term exposure to music affects the DPOAE amplitude at high frequencies and this serves as an early indicator for noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). Analysis of output sound pressure level suggests that the PMSs of the participants have the capability to induce hearing loss if the individual listened to it at the maximum volume setting. Hence, the medical professionals need to be cautious while using PMS.

The overall goal of this study is to examine the intelligibility differences of clear and conversational speech and also to objectively analyze the acoustic properties contributing to these differences. Seventeen postlingual stable sensory-neural hearing impaired listeners with an age range of 17-40 years were recruited for the study. Forty Telugu sentences spoken by a female Telugu speaker in both clear and conversational speech styles were used as stimuli for the subjects. Results revealed that mean scores of clear speech were higher (mean = 84.5) when compared to conversational speech (mean = 61.4) with an advantage of 23.1% points. Acoustic properties revealed greater fundamental frequency (f0) and intensity, longer duration, higher consonant-vowel ratio (CVR) and greater temporal energy in clear speech.

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Numerous studies have documented the adverse effects of high-dose radiation on hearing in patients. On the other hand, radiographers are exposed to a low dose of ionizing radiation, and the effect of a low dose of radiation on hearing is quite abstruse. Therefore, the present systematic review aimed to elucidate the effect of low-dose ionizing radiation on hearing. Two authors independently carried out a comprehensive data search in three electronic databases, including PUBMED/MEDLINE, CINAHL, and SCOPUS. Eligible articles were independently assessed for quality by two authors. Cochrane Risk of Bias tool was used assess quality of the included studies. Two articles met the low-dose radiation exposure criteria given by Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and National Council on Radiation Protection (NCRP) guidelines. Both studies observed the behavioral symptoms, pure-tone hearing sensitivity at the standard, extended high frequencies, and the middle ear functioning in low-dose radiation-exposed individuals and compared with age and gender-matched controls. One study assessed the cochlear function using transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE). Both studies reported that behavioral symptoms of auditory dysfunction and hearing thresholds at extended high frequencies were higher in radiation-exposed individuals than in the controls. The current systematic review concludes that the low-dose ionizing radiation may affect the hearing adversely. Nevertheless, further studies with robust research design are required to explicate the cause and effect relationship between the occupational low-dose ionizing radiation exposure and hearing.