Weber test
4.69 Weber test. Used to distinguish between conductive and sensorineural hearing losses. A vibrating tuning fork is placed on the subject’s forehead or vertex (midline) of the head and the subject is asked where in the head the tuning fork is heard (i.e., right ear, left ear, midline). If both ears have equal bone-conduction for the frequency of the tuning fork, the tone will be heard in the midline. If there is a sensorineural hearing loss in one ear and normal hearing in the other ear, the tone will lateralize to the normal ear. If there is a conductive hearing loss in one ear and normal hearing in the other ear, […]
tympanometry
4.68 tympanometry. Measurement of acoustic impedance or admittance of the middle-ear system as a function of air pressure within the external auditory meatus. Annotation Measurement-plane tympanometry yields acoustic impedance or admittance at the measurement plane; i.e., at the probe tip. Compensated tympanometry yields acoustic impedance or admittance at the eardrum.
tympanogram
4.67 tympanogram. Graphic display of tympanometry data showing acoustic impedance or admittance as a function of ear canal air pressure.
tinnitus
4.66 tinnitus. Otological condition in which sound is perceived by a person without any external auditory stimulation. The sound may be a whistling, ringing, buzzing, or cricket-type sound, but auditory hallucinations of voices are excluded. Annotation Sometimes tinnitus is caused by sounds originating in the circulatory system. In these cases the sounds also may be heard by another person.
PTS
4.65 permanent threshold shift; PTS. Permanent increase in the threshold of audibility. Unit, decibel, (dB). Annotation Permanent threshold shift implies permanent injury to the structures of the inner ear or central auditory system, or both.