소음성 난청은 현재 우리나라에서 특수건강진단 결과 유소견자(D1 판정) 중 가장 많으며, 또한 소음 특수건강진단 피검사자의 10% 이상이 소음성 난청 요관찰자(C1)로 판정을 받는다.3) 그리고 이러한 규모만 아니라 사전에 예방 할 수 있다는 관리 측면 때문에 산업보건 분야에서 중요한 위치를 차지하는 질환이다. 소음에 의한 청력장애는 3~6 kHz 영역에서 조기 청력손실이 있으며 일반적으로 4 kHz
Pure-tone thresholds (PTTs), speech reception threshold (SRT), and auditory brainstem response (ABR) threshold were compared in 100 ears with noise-induced hearing loss to examine the accuracy of prediction for hearing thresholds. The 100 subject ears, which were with sensorineural hearing loss and no history of ear disease, were selected from 62 male workers who were exposed to noise in automobile manufacturing factory and suspected of noise-induced hearing loss. PTTs were determined using modified ascending method in 5-dB steps by pure tone audiometry (PTA)；threshold for speech were measured as SRT；and ABR threshols was defined as the lowest stimulus intensity at which V wave could be clearly observed. SRT was lower than the average PTTs, and ABR threshold was higher than PTTs and SRT. Simple regression analysis was carried out to examine the relationship between SRT and the average PTTs and thresholds by frequency by PTA. PTTs in low frequency region (0.5-1 kHz) showed higher association, with explanatory power of more than 70%, and particularly the average PTTs by three division method showed the highest association with SRT. Simple regression analysis for the relationship between ABR threshold and the average PTTs and thresholds by frequency by PTA revealed that PTTs in 2-6 kHz region was more highly associated with ABR threshold. KEY WORDS：Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL)·Pure-tone threshold·Speech reception threshold·Auditory brainstem response.
INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS REFERENCES
