Babar Hussain Khan, Shiraz Aslam, Pervaiz Palous.
Pattern of Pure Tone Audiograms in Presbyacusis.
Pak J Otolaryngol Jan ;28(3):84-7.

AIM: To investigate the degree and configurations of hearing loss on pure tone audiometry in presbyacusis. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective. PLACE AND DURATION: Shalamar hospital, Lahore. September 2010 to May 2011. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: One hundred and twenty nine (N=129) consecutive subjects, sixty years of age or above, presenting with hearing impairment underwent pure tone audiometry. Demographic characteristics of the patients were noted. The subjects with external and middle ear disease, with history of noise/ ototoxic trauma were excluded from the study. The results were reported in terms of degree and pure tone configuration of hearing loss (HL). RESULTS: All subjects showed symmetrical sensorineural hearing loss on pure tone audiometry. The levels of hearing deficit varied between mild and profound and the frequency of mild, moderate, severe, and profound hearing impairment were found to be 26.3%, 43.4%, 18.6%, 11.6% respectively. Males and females were affected equally. The pure tone average hearing loss showed more loss on high frequencies. The average air-bone gap was 5 dB. Out of 129 cases, 62 % had downsloping (56.4% were gentle sloping and 43.5% showed abrupt slope), 26.3% had flat pattern and 2.3% showed u shaped configuration. CONCLUSION: We found greater number of a gentlehigh-frequency sloping audiogram followed by flat configuration and the degree of loss varied from mild to profound, with a prevalence of moderate degree. No significant differences were observed in the audiometric profile in men and women.

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