Audiometric findings in patients with subjective tinnitus

Abstract

Tinnitus is the perception of sound in the absence of an external source. Most cases of tinnitus are associated with hearing loss expressed either in the audiogram or detected by more sensitive measures. The objective of this research was to determine the prevalence, type, and degree of hearing loss in patients with subjective tinnitus and to analyze the quality features and some tinnitus characteristics related to associated hearing loss. We analyzed audiometric, otoscopic findings, and the medical reports of 1,046 patients, 573 males (54.8%) and 473 females (45.2%), aged 19 to 89 years. The patients were examined at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, City General Hospital “8-September”, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, during the period from January 2014 to October 2015. For statistical data analysis, we used a chi-square test with a significance level of p<0.05. Most of the patients were males aged 60 to 69 years (13.4%), but there was no significant difference in age and gender distribution (p=0.156). The prevalence of hearing loss among these tinnitus patients was 91.9%. Most of the patients had bilateral sensorineural hearing loss (58.2%), predominantly at high frequencies (p<0.00001), and described their tinnitus as high-pitch whistling. Bilateral tinnitus was the most common manifestation (59.4%), followed by left-sided unilateral tinnitus (22.8%). Acoustic trauma and noise-induced hearing loss were present in 27.8% of all patients with otological conditions. Most of the patients with subjective tinnitus have some degree of hearing loss. Bilateral, high-pitched tinnitus and bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, predominantly at high frequencies, were the most common findings. Acoustic trauma and noise-induced hearing loss were the most common otological conditions, and noise-induced tinnitus was the most common type of tinnitus.