The Relevance of the High Frequency Audiometry in Tinnitus Patients with Normal Hearing in Conventional Pure-Tone Audiometry
Table 1
Demographic, audiologic, and clinical characteristics of patients with normal versus pathological HF-audiogram.
(HF-norm/HF-HL1)
HF-norm
HF-HL
Group Comparison
value
High frequency hearing level (dB HL)
75 (13/62)
2.69 ± 2.49
25.54 ± 12.25
(73) = −13.42
>0.001*
Hearing level (dB HL)
75 (13/62)
3.27 ± 1.85
4.40 ± 2.23
(73) = −1.71
0.092
Gender (m/f)
75 (13/62)
9/4
34/28
(1,75) = 0.910
0.340
Age
75 (13/62)
24.63 ± 7.10
39.89 ± 8.74
(73) = −5.89
>0.001*
BDI
70 (12/58)
7.85 ± 6.00
11.05 ± 9.89
(68) = −1.12
0.267
Tinnitus severity
TQ
75 (13/62)
23.85 ± 13.95
36.18 ± 17.18
(73) = −2.42
0.018*
THI
74 (13/61)
33.69 ± 17.39
48.82 ± 23.61
(72) = −2.66
0.014*
Strong/loud
73 (13/60)
4.85 ± 2.30
5.48 ± 2.31
(71) = −0.90
0.370
Uncomfortable
73 (13/60)
6.00 ± 2.24
6.95 ± 2.52
(71) = −1.25
0.214
Annoying
73 (13/60)
4.62 ± 2.40
5.97 ± 2.69
(71) = −1.67
0.099
Unpleasant
73 (13/60)
4.85 ± 2.70
6.03 ± 2.74
(71) = −1.42
0.160
Ignoring
73 (13/60)
5.08 ± 3.07
6.40 ± 2.90
(71) = −1.48
0.144
Tinnitus characteristics
Laterality (right/left/bilateral, in %)
74 (13/61)
38/31/31
28/31/41
0.691
Pitch
61 (9/52)
7334 ± 2378
7605 ± 4301
(59) = −0.18
0.855
Duration (in months)
73 (13/60)
62.85 ± 95.76
67.68 ± 69.05
(71) = −0.21
0.832
Onset of tinnitus related to no/yes in %
Sound blast
65 (11/54)
82 /18
93/7
0.266
Whiplash
65 (11/54)
100/0
93/7
>0.999
Change in hearing
65 (11/54)
91/9
94/6
0.533
Stress
65 (11/54)
73/27
43/57
0.099
Head trauma
65 (11)
91/9
98/2
0.312
Others
65 (11)
27/73
48/52
0.320
Comorbidities of tinnitus (no/yes in %)
Headache
71 (13)
77/23
52/48
(1,71) = 2.74
0.098
Vertigo or dizziness
72 (13)
85/15
73/27
0.495
TMD
71 (13)
77/23
62/38
0.358
Neck pain
70 (13)
62/38
46/54
(1,70) = 1.07
0.300
Other pain syndromes
71 (13)
92/8
69/31
0.162
Results from independent samples -tests, chi-square tests and Fishers exact tests for group comparisons. HF-norm: group with normal HF-audiogram; HF-HL: group with HF-hearing loss; m: male; f: female. 1Some information was not available for all patients. < 0.05.
