Alteration of efferent system functions in noise-induced hearing loss patients

AIM:To investigate the changes of efferent system functions in noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL) patients and find out a method of clinic diagnosis for NIHL.METHODS:The amplitudes of distortion product otoacoustic emission were measured with and without contralateral broad-band noise using Celesta-503 otoacoustic emission analyzer. The efferent system functions were evaluated by the amplitudes of contralateral suppression.RESULTS:The contralateral suppressions in NIHL patients were significant lower than those in control group in low frequency (0.75 kHz and 1 kHz) of DP-gram and low level primary tone in 2 kHz input/output function. There were no significant differences in contralateral suppressions of 4 kHz and 6 kHz input/output function between NIHL patients and control group.CONCLUSION:The contralateral suppressions in NIHL patients are lower than those in normal hearing subjects and the measurements of efferent system functions could be used in early detection and clinic diagnosis for NIHL.