DISEASE PAGE

Sensorineural (OHC-loss) Hearing Loss

The canonical absent-emission picture — outer hair cell loss abolishes the OAE.

The OAE signature

  • Emissions are diminished or absent. TEOAEs disappear with even mild loss; DPOAEs are typically absent once loss exceeds roughly 50 dB HL.[5]
  • DPOAEs track the audiometric threshold more closely and with greater frequency specificity than TEOAEs.[3]
0 ms20 ms
— Normal ear— Sensorineural (OHC-loss) Hearing Loss
Simulated TEOAE comparison. Educational signal model — not recorded patient data.

Audiogram companion

The pure-tone audiogram below accompanies the OAE signature. Reading the two together — what the threshold shows and what the emission shows — is the core diagnostic skill.

0204060801002505001k2k4k8kFrequency (Hz)
○ Right — PTA 37 dB (Mild)✕ Left — PTA 42 dB (Moderate)
Pure-tone audiogram companion. dB HL increases downward, following clinical convention. Illustrative thresholds — not recorded patient data.

Why the emission looks this way

  • The emission is a by-product of the cochlear amplifier. When outer hair cells are lost or non-functional, there is no active process to generate backward-traveling energy, so the emission falls into the noise floor.[2]

TEACHING POINT

An absent OAE confirms outer hair cell dysfunction but does not quantify the hearing loss — a refer result means a loss may exceed ~30–40 dB, nothing more precise.[3]

Sources for this page are listed on the References page. Browse all condition patterns from the atlas home.