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83rd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

16.05. - 20.05.2012, Mainz

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Correlation of pure tone thresholds and hearing loss for numbers for plausibility checking in expertise

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German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 83rd Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Mainz, 16.-20.05.2012. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2012. Doc12hno30

doi: 10.3205/12hno30, urn:nbn:de:0183-12hno309

Published: July 23, 2012

© 2012 Dochtermann et al.
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Background: The literature describes different calculation variations for plausibility checking in expertise by comparison of mean hearing loss in pure tone threshold audiometry and hearing loss for numbers in speech audiometry. This study compares three calculation variations: A (250, 500 and 1000 Hz), B (500 and 1000 Hz) and C (500, 1000 and 2000 Hz).

Methods: Audiograms of 80 normal hearing patients, 106 patients with hearing loss and 135 expertise patients were analyzed in a retrospective manner. Differences between mean pure tone audiometry thresholds and hearing loss for numbers were calculated and statistically compared.

Results: We found calculation variation A to be the best combination of frequencies, since it yielded the smallest standard deviations while being statistically different to calculation variations B and C. The one- and 2,58-fold standard deviation (representing 68.3% and 99.0% of all values in a normal distribution) was ±4.6 and ±11.8 dB at maximum for calculation variation A, respectively.

Conclusions: For plausibility checking in expertise, the mean threshold from the frequencies 250, 500 and 1000 Hz should be compared with the hearing loss for numbers. The common recommendation to doubt plausibility when the difference of these values exceeds ±5 dB is too strict as shown by this study.