Lecture 4 Flashcards
What are the 4 behavioural audiometry/psychoacoustic tests?
- Pure tone audiometry
- Clinical decisions
- Speech audiometry
- Masking
What is identification?
Identifying that there is a problem
- a hearing loss
- a vestibular problem
- problems hearing at school
Identification is too light of a description to count as a ____
Diagnosis
What is diagnosis?
- Determining the nature of the condition (based on assessment)
- This may or may not include etiology (the underlying cause of the condition)
What are some things audiologists diagnose?
- A moderate sloping to severe
- Sensorineural hearing loss bilaterally
- BPPV
- Auditory processing disorder
- Auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder
- noise-induced mild 4 kHz notch
pulsatile tinnitus
You often don’t know the ____ behind a diagnosis
Etiology
Can audiologists diagnose?
Yes, it is within our scope of practice
Where CAN’T audiologists diagnose?
Ontario
Ontario’s language confuses ____ with ____
Diagnosis, etiology
Audiologists in ontario can’t diagnose, instead they can ____ and ____
Assess, describe
What two things can audiologists identify in Ontario?
ANSD and APD (considered to be symptoms and not disorders)
What wording should be used in ontario?
In Ontario, use wording like ‘this is consistent with’ or ‘this may suggest’
As audiologists, what is our ultimate focus?
Hearing function and communication
Tight link between ____ and ____ means that a good audiologist should understand both
Physiology, perception
What things must be diagnoses by an otlogist?
- Schwannoma
- Infections
- Meniere’s
- Otosclerosis
- PET
- Superior canal dehiscence
What are the 3 ways to talk about an audiogram?
- Y axis
- X axis
- Z axis
Explain the key points of the Y axis
The level
- dB HL (air and bone)
- Loudness Contours and Growth
- Intensity Discrimination
Explain the key points of the X axis
Frequency
- Place Specificity
- The Basalward Shift
Explain the key point of the X axis
Temporal Integration
What is the purpose of the audiogram?
- Provides information about likely communication problems
- Critical for audiologic treatment
What are 4 limits of the audiogram?
- Poor for distinguishing sensory versus neural loss
- May miss significant loss of hair cells
- Does not assess temporal processing
- It is the beginning of assessment, not the end
What is behavioural audiometry looking to find?
- Functional characterization of clinically relevant psychoacoustic details
- How is this person different from what we expect
- Goal is not description of ability, but description of different ability
What is MAF?
Minimal audible field (open ears)
What is MAP?
Minimal audible pressure (headphones)
Do outer ear effects play an important role in diagnostics?
No, usually we have the ear plugged when testing and treating
However, in everyday life we hear better with MAF because of the gain from the outer ear
The middle ear is not good at transferring ____ frequencies
Low
The ____ coupled with the ____ is responsible for MAF
Middle ear, outer ear
The shape of hearing reflects ____ and ____
Middle ear, outer ear
Is the natural shape of the absolute threshold curve relevant for diagnosis? What needs to be done?
No
dB HL is a flattened version of the MAP
How do we find the HL from SPL?
dB SPL - RETSPL = dB HL
What is RETSPL?
Reference equivalent threshold sound pressure level
What does RETSPL represent
Middle ear transfer function
What are RETSPLs?
- Levels in dB SPL that correspond to 0 dB HL, as measured at a calibration point
- Inserts: 2cc coupler
- TDH: 6cc coupler
- Speakers: microphone in centre of head
What is 0 on an audiogram?
The average lowest threshold
Explain the importance of understanding why not every ear is the same?
The actual sound level at the eardrum at a given dB HL is…
1. Not the same across individuals
2. Not the same across different earphones for a given individual
Can dB HL change due to different ear canal size?
- Smaller ears, more pressure, hear at a softer level
- Larger ears, less pressure, hear at a higher level
- Hearing ability doesn’t change, ear canal size changes how you hear
What will a leak with insert and TDH headphones show? What also shows this?
Low frequency drops, perforations
What is the best to use to get the best predictor of real-world hearing? But why is it bad?
Sound field, but its not good because you cant control which ear the sound is going to
____ may be less similar to sound field (less predictive of real-world hearing)
Inserts
____ are just as correct for occluded-ear hearing (trough a hearing aid or airpods)
Inserts
Will bone conduction be affected by perforation?
No
What are the 5 mechanisms of bone conduction? Which are the most important? Which is the largest effect?
- Sound radiated into the external ear canal
- Middle ear ossicle inertia
- Inertia of the cochlear fluids
- Compression of the cochlear walls
- Pressure transmission from the cerebrospinal fluid
Top 3 most important (3 is largest effect)