Otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) in diabetic patients (IDDM) with normal hearing

Introduction: Transitorily evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) are a recognised clinical tool for neonatal screening. TEOAE also provide evidence of subclinical cochlear damage in diabetic patients. Method: TEOAE of 60 patients with well managed diabetes (IDDM) and normal hearing (no value worse than 20 dB (SD 3.943 dB), normal ABR) were compared with TEOAE of 58 normally hearing controls of the same age. Results: IDDM patients had a mean response of 7.13 dB (SD 3.943 dB), while the control group had a response of 11.56 dB (SD 4.402 dB). Discussion: Significantly worse TEOAE scores were demonstrated in the diabetic patients who had normal hearing, as demonstrated on pure-tone audiometry. This would suggest that hair-cell damage may occur in the diabetic patient even though hearing loss is not demonstrated.