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Age dependence of otoacoustic emissions: the loss of amplitude is primarily caused by age-related hearing loss and not by aging alone

  • Otology
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Abstract

The amplitude of otoacoustic emissions (OAE) is known to decrease with increasing age, but it is still unclear whether this is due to aging alone or to age-related hearing loss. This study describes the exploration of a large database (5,142 patients from 0.4 to 89.8 years) collected in a routine clinical testing. Reliable pure tone audiograms, transitory evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) recordings were available from 5,424 ears without conductive loss, acute sudden deafness or retrocochlear disorder. From this database, group 1 with behavioral thresholds of 10 dB HL or better at all frequencies from 1 to 4 kHz and group 2 with age-accordant thresholds after ISO 7029 were formed. In both groups, the OAE amplitude decreased with increasing age, but in group 1, the effect was significant only for DPOAE recorded at 3 and 4 kHz. In group 2, the loss of amplitude was steeper and highly significant for TEOAE as well as DPOAE at all frequencies, but most pronounced at high frequencies. These findings support the hypothesis that the reduction of OAE amplitude with increasing age is primarily caused by age-linked hearing loss and not by aging alone.

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Acknowledgment

The authors gratefully acknowledge the valuable comments and recommendations of Prof. Dr. Rudolf Probst who left his initial role as an anonymous reviewer and contributed substantially to the final version of this paper.

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they do not have any financial relationship to organizations that might have sponsored the research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Univ.-HNO-Klinik Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 400, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Sebastian Hoth, Katrin Gudmundsdottir & Peter Plinkert

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  1. Sebastian Hoth
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  2. Katrin Gudmundsdottir
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  3. Peter Plinkert
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Correspondence to Sebastian Hoth.

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Hoth, S., Gudmundsdottir, K. & Plinkert, P. Age dependence of otoacoustic emissions: the loss of amplitude is primarily caused by age-related hearing loss and not by aging alone. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 267, 679–690 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-009-1106-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-009-1106-5

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