Study of hearing loss in 200 patients with subjective tinnitus

Objective: To analyze the hearing loss profiles in patients with tinnitus, and then provide clinical foundation for further studying the etiology and examination methods of tinnitus.

Methods: Ear specialist examination, acoustic impedance test,normal frequency pure tone audiometry and extended high frequency audiometry were applied to 200 patients with chief complaint of subjective tinnitus.

Results: Among the 200 tinnitus cases, 123 (61.5%) patients were diagnosed with unilateral tinnitus, 77 (38.5%) patients with bilateral tinnitus and 46 (23.0%) cases with normal hearing. In those patients with unilateral tinnitus, by comparing the hearing threshold of affected side and contralateral side (0.125-8 kHz), the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05), but in extended high frequency (> 10 kHz), the difference between two groups was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). There was significant difference in hearing threshold between tinnitus patients with normal and abnormal hearing in normal frequency (P < 0.05), meantime the detection rate in abnormal hearing group was lower than the normal group.

Conclusions: Tinnitus can occur in people with normal hearing. Early in tinnitus,further study need be undertaken on whether the audiometry extended high frequency can offer the early evidence of hearing loss for tinnitus patients or not.