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Here's how to read an audiogram and a doctor's explanation of the most common results including sloping hearing loss, notched hearing loss, cookie-bite hearing loss and reverse-sloping hearing loss.
The shape of the audiogram resulting from pure-tone audiometry gives an indication of the type of hearing loss as well as possible causes. Conductive hearing loss due to disorders of the middle ear shows as a flat increase in thresholds across the frequency range. Sensorineural hearing loss will have a contoured shape depending on the cause.
PTA can be used to differentiate between conductive hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss and mixed hearing loss. A hearing loss can be described by its degree i.e. mild, moderate, severe or profound, or by its shape i.e. high frequency or sloping, low frequency or rising, notched, U-shaped or 'cookie-bite', peaked or flat.
A Rinne test should always be accompanied by a Weber test to also detect sensorineural hearing loss and thus confirm the nature of hearing loss. The Rinne test was named after German otologist Heinrich Adolf Rinne (1819–1868); [ 3 ] [ 4 ] the Weber test was named after Ernst Heinrich Weber (1795–1878).
Given that hearing loss can vary by frequency and that audiograms are plotted with a logarithmic scale, the idea of a percentage of hearing loss is somewhat arbitrary, but where decibels of loss are converted via a legally recognized formula, it is possible to calculate a standardized "percentage of hearing loss", which is suitable for legal ...
Audiograms are unable to measure hidden hearing loss, [15] [16] which is the inability to distinguish between sounds in loud environments such as restaurants. Hidden hearing loss is caused by synaptopathy in the cochlea, [17] as opposed to sensorineural hearing loss caused by hair cell dysfunction. Audiograms are designed to "estimate the ...
The result of the test is an audiogram diagram which plots a person's hearing sensitivity at the tested frequencies. On an audiogram an "x" plot represents the softest threshold heard at each specific frequency in the left ear, and an "o" plot represents the softest threshold heard at each specific frequency in the right ear.
Audiograms of human hearing are produced using an audiometer, which presents different frequencies to the subject, usually over calibrated headphones, at specified levels. The levels are weighted with frequency relative to a standard graph known as the minimum audibility curve , which is intended to represent "normal" hearing.