Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
Volume 108, Issue 12 , Pages 937-942, December 2009

Hearing in Noise Test in Subjects With Conductive Hearing Loss

  • Duen-Lii Hsieh

      Affiliations

    • Department of Otolaryngology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Yun-Lin Branch, Yun-Lin, Taipei, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Kai-Nan Lin

      Affiliations

    • Department of Otolaryngology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Jung-Hung Ho

      Affiliations

    • Department of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology, National Taipei College of Nursing, Taipei, Taiwan
    • ,
  • Tien-Chen Liu

      Affiliations

    • Department of Otolaryngology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorrespondence to: Dr Tien-Chen Liu, Department of Otolaryngology, National Taiwan University Hospital, 7 Chung-Shan South Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan

Received 7 April 2009; received in revised form 24 April 2009; accepted 28 April 2009.

Article Outline

Background/Purpose

It has been reported that patients with pure conductive hearing loss (CHL) have remarked that their hearing is better in the presence of background noise. This study investigated the ability for speech discrimination under background noise in adult subjects with CHL, using the Mandarin Hearing in Noise Test (M-HINT).

Methods

Seventeen subjects with unilateral CHL and 15 with bilateral CHL participated in this study. Twenty normal-hearing subjects served as controls. During the M-HINT, the sentences and noise were presented in a soundproof chamber. Reception threshold for sentences (RTS) in quiet were obtained first, and then three more blocks, including noise from the front, right and left, were measured for each subject.

Results

The RTS in quiet was significantly elevated in unilateral and bilateral CHL groups. For the unilateral group, regardless of whether noise came from the front, affected side, or normal side, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) that was needed to reach 50% correction was significantly higher than in the control group. For the bilateral group, the SNR for noise from the front, left and right was significantly elevated compared with that in the unilateral and control groups. The noise composite score was also significantly different among these three groups (control < unilateral < bilateral).

Conclusion

There was reduced speech discrimination ability under background noise in adult subjects with unilateral or bilateral CHL.

Key Words:  adults , bilateral hearing loss , conductive hearing loss , hearing tests , unilateral hearing loss

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PII: S0929-6646(10)60006-X

doi:10.1016/S0929-6646(10)60006-X

Journal of the Formosan Medical Association
Volume 108, Issue 12 , Pages 937-942, December 2009

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