Identification of Hearing Loss in Children and Young Adults Using Measures of Transient Otoacoustic Emission Reproducibility

Abstract

Measures of transient evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) reproducibility were obtained for 506 ears of 260 children and young adults. Frequency-specific and whole reproducibility (WR) data were obtained using ILO88 hardware and software and were analyzed with respect to pure-tone threshold and immittance data for the same ears. Reproducibility scores were most robust in the frequency region of 2,000 Hz. In addition, the 2,000-Hz reproducibility score was the most efficient of all measurements (0.85 to 0.91) in separating normal and hearing-impaired ears, regardless of the frequency or frequencies at which the hearing loss occurred. Conductive hearing loss precluded detection of emissions. The present findings suggest that TEOAEs provide useful information in routine clinical practice and that they may be employed to screen for the presence of hearing loss in children and young adults.