Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions and cochlear dysfunction

Amplitude measurement and reproducibility of Transient-otoacoustic emissions (T-EOAE) depend on synchronicity and functional integrity of cochlear outer hair cells, thus, the main objective of this study was to determine the usefulness of amplitude measurement and reproducibility in five selective frequencies of T-EOAE in patients with Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). We studied 44 subjects with SNHL by means of T-EOAE and Brainstem auditory evoked potentials (BAEP), and compared the results with those of a six control-normal-hearing subject group. We observed significant differences in the reproducibility of T-EOAE and in amplitudes of 0.7, 1.5, 2.2, 3.0 and 3.7 kHz. In addition, we observed negative significant correlations between BAEP threshold and T-EOAE reproducibility and with all specific amplitude measurement frequency values. These results confirm the clinical usefulness of reproducibility and selective amplitude measurement of frequency of T-EOAE for SNHL identification.