The Influence of Tinnitus on the Audiometric Threshold of Sufferers

Abstract

Introduction Tinnitus is a worldwide problem. Objective The objective of this study is to evaluate the audiometric hearing thresholds of adult patients with ongoing tinnitus as their only otological symptom. Methods We evaluated the hearing thresholds of 43 adult patients with ongoing tinnitus and no history of hearing loss from the otolaryngology department of a tertiary health institution at speech and high frequencies. A total of 56 tinnitus ears were compared against 30 contralateral normal ears as well as with the 100 ears of 50 healthy volunteers. Results The study group consisted of 11 (25.6%) males and 32 (74.4%) females with a mean age of 40.9 ± 11.7. The mean Pure Tone Average of the 56 tinnitus ears was 14.8 ± 9, while that of the 100 control ears was 11.2 ± 6 (U = 2078, p = 0.008). The mean pure tone average of the control was also significantly lower than that of the 30 contralateral normal ears of the tinnitus sufferers (U = 1136, p = 0.02). We observed mild to moderate hearing loss in 10 (23%) of the participants. We observed no hearing loss among the control group. Conclusion A proportion of tinnitus sufferers with self-professed normal hearing are likely to have mildly elevated pure tone audiometric thresholds. In patients with unilateral tinnitus, such elevated pure tone hearing thresholds are likely to be in the tinnitus ear and the contralateral non-tinnitus ear.

Quality of life of tinnitus patients with and without hearing loss

“…With these results, one can infer that the associated hearing loss whether unilateral or bilateral, has significant impact on the intensity of tinnitus on the patients' HRQoL. This is consistent with the findings of Ukaegbe et al, Mazurek et al and Dias et al 10,28,37 Also, Savitri et al, Hiller et al and Joo et al concluded that the coexistence of tinnitus with hearing loss appear to have a greater risk of deteriorating HRQoL and this seems to be of clinical relevance for the prediction of high tinnitus annoyance levels. 38,39,40 Tinnitus is a potential debilitating symptom which can be a source of distress to the affected individual especially when there is associated hearing loss.…”

“…11,25,[31][32][33] However, this finding was at variance with the work on the influence of tinnitus on the audiometric threshold of sufferers where Ukaegbe et al found a predominant number of participants with conductive hearing loss. 10 Their finding is likely to be a reflection of the low number of participants with hearing loss (23.3%) in their study. 10 The prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss among tinnitus patients supports an established fact that many of the causes related to tinnitus have their sources from the inner ear.…”

“…10 Their finding is likely to be a reflection of the low number of participants with hearing loss (23.3%) in their study. 10 The prevalence of sensorineural hearing loss among tinnitus patients supports an established fact that many of the causes related to tinnitus have their sources from the inner ear. Goyal et al further classified sensorineural hearing loss type into those who had sensory (cochlear) hearing loss and retro cochlear hearing loss.…”

“…The subjects need further middle ear analysis which was not available in this research. 10 The study defer from the findings by Monzani et al where sensorineural hearing loss was the commonest hearing loss amongst the tinnitus patients. 11 The elevated pure tone average (PTAv) observed among patients with tinnitus in the same study indicated that they are more likely to experience one form of hearing loss than those without tinnitus.…”

“…4 Ukaegbe et al observed that out of 10 (23.3%) subjects with hearing loss, conductive hearing loss was the commonest type of hearing loss observed in 6 (13.9%), while sensorineural hearing loss was seen in 7% of the participants and mixed hearing loss in only 2.3%. 10 The conductive hearing loss observed in the subjects may be attributed to some subclinical middle ear disease such as Eustachian tube dysfunction which implies that these subjects are likely to improve with therapy. The subjects need further middle ear analysis which was not available in this research.…”