SUPRA-THRESHOLD HEARING OF PURE-TONES AND SPEECH WITH PRESBYACUSIS

One hundred forty-nine patients 65-94 years old had a high frequency loss in the pure tone audiogram corresponding to data in literature. There was no significant difference between left and right. The SISI-score and Langenbeck-audiogram showed a cochlear type in 80%. The tests for central speech perception showed correlation to age in the following sequence: Dichotic discrimination, followed by discrimination of one - syllable - words, then hearing loss for words with four syllables, then binaural summation. Other parameters like serum-cholesterin and cardio-vascular function had a correlation to age much less pronounced than the audiological tests. © 1979 Springer-Verlag.