Background Vestibular evoked myogenic potential (VEMP) test is an electrophysiological testing that can assess dysfunction of otolithic organs and the integrity of their pathways precisely. Aim Compare amplitude and latency of ocular and cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potentials evoked by air- and bone-conducted stimuli in three different groups. Materials and methods The control group (group 1) included ten healthy volunteers adults (20 ears) with normal hearing thresholds. Group 2 consisted of ten patients (20 ears) with conductive hearing loss (CHL) and group 3 comprised 10 patients (20 ears) with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). All participants underwent pure tone audiometry, immittancemetry ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential (oVEMPs) and cervical vestibular evoked myogenic potential (cVEMPs) by air and bone conduction stimuli. Results The response rate of cVEMPs and oVEMPs elicited by both types of stimuli was 100% in control group and SNHL group. In the group of conductive hearing loss, air conduction(AC) (c VEMPs and o VEMPs) response rate was 60%. There was a statistically significant positive correlation between latencies of oVEMPs and cVEMPs evoked by AC and BC methods and degrees of hearing loss in SNHL group. Conclusion Ocular and cervical VEMPs elicited by bone conduction (BC) stimuli aren’t vulnerable to conductive hearing loss. Bc VEMPs provides assessment of vestibular system in patients with conductive hearing loss. Significant correlation was found between cVEMPs and oVEMPs abnormalities and severity of sensorineural hearing loss.

Background CE-Chirp is a new broadband stimulus that permits the energy from the stimulus to reach the whole regions of the cochlea at approximately the same time. Aim Comparison of auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds obtained by using click stimulus, broadband CE-Chirp and 500 Hz, 1, 2, and 4 kHz narrow band CE-Chirp stimuli to those obtained by behavioral hearing thresholds in adults with normal hearing and with varying configurations of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Patients and Methods Ten adult patients with normal-hearing thresholds, whose age ranged from 19 to 50 years, with a mean age of 30.4±9.1 years constituted a control group (group 1). Thirty adult patients with different configurations of SNHL constituted group 2, whose age ranged from 18 to 65 years, with a mean age of 32.5±9.8 years. All cases and controls were subjected to pure-tone audiometry, click, CE-Chirp and four narrow band CE-Chirp (at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz) evoked ABRs. Results ABR thresholds to chirps have a relationship closer to behavioral hearing thresholds than ABR thresholds to clicks in individuals with normal-hearing thresholds and SNHL. Wave V mean latencies at threshold in response to click stimuli were earlier than those obtained using CE-Chirp in both groups. Wave V mean amplitudes at threshold with CE-Chirp were significantly larger than those with click in both groups. Wave V amplitude increased and latency decreased as the stimulus frequency increased in both groups. Conclusion There are evidences to suggest that ABR recording in response to CE-Chirps provide an efficient tool for estimating hearing thresholds in normal-hearing thresholds and individuals suffering from SNHL in comparison to click stimuli. The use of CE-Chirp had the potential to provide high sensitivity and accuracy for frequency-specific thresholds estimation in young children and difficult to test adults.

Background Evidence of systematic relationships between the perceptual characteristics of tinnitus, like its pitch or loudness, and those of the absolute hearing threshold curves, like the presence and degree of hearing loss at certain frequencies, would probably help to understand how tinnitus is related to the configuration of hearing loss. Objective The objective of this study was to determine the effects of hearing aid fitting on the perceptual characteristics of tinnitus. Participants and methods The participants of the study were 50 adults (20-60 years old) with subjective tinnitus and different degrees of hearing loss. Otorhinolaryngological examination, tonal audiometry, and acoustic immittance testing were done. Participants answered Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) Questionnaire at the time of the first fitting with their hearing aid and performed at 0, 3, 6, and 12 months postfitting. Results THI showed a significant decrease throughout the 12 months from 74.80±15.98 at baseline to 61.84±14.02 3 months later, then 38.35±10.98 by the sixth month and 12.90±4.26 by the end of 12 months. At the baseline, no slight or mild cases were detected, whereas moderate THI represented 16%, severe 28%, and catastrophic 56%. These rates changed 3 months later as catastrophic cases decreased almost to one-third of its rate at the baseline. By the sixth month, no catastrophic cases were detected and severe stages recorded trivial rates, whereas most of cases were categorized as mild or moderate. By the end of the study, the great majority of cases were slight (81.6%) and the remaining portion was mild, with no moderate, severe, or catastrophic cases recorded. Conclusion Analysis of the results has shown that the use of hearing aids are one of the number of therapeutic options offered to tinnitus patients and promote the improvement in the perceptual characteristics of tinnitus.