Predicting Hearing Loss from the Acoustic Reflex

Abstract

Acoustic reflex thresholds for pure tones and white noise were used to predict severity of audiometric loss in 1043 ears with sensorineural hearing loss. Both severity and slope of loss were predicted in an additional 113 ears. Prediction was usually quite accurate. Serious errors occurred in only 4% of cases. These findings have important implications for the auditory evaluation of babies and young children.