@article{ref1,
title="Clinical audiometric patterns of hearing loss following blast-related injury in U.S. military personnel",
journal="International journal of audiology",
year="2020",
author="Joseph, Antony R. and Shaw, Jaime L. and Clouser, Mary C. and MacGregor, Andrew J. and Dougherty, Amber L. and Galarneau, Michael R.",
volume="ePub",
number="ePub",
pages="ePub-ePub",
abstract="<b>Objective:</b> To identify clinical audiometric patterns of hearing loss following blast-related injury (BRI) in US military personnel.<b>Design:</b> Retrospective cohort study.<b>Study sample:</b> A total of 1186 male Navy and Marine Corps service members with normal hearing thresholds on pre-injury audiograms who had post-injury audiograms in the Blast-Related Auditory Injury Database.<b>Results:</b> Low- and high-frequency pure-tone averages (PTAs) were significantly higher in those with BRI than non-blast-related injury (NBRI) for both ears (<i>p</i> < 0.001 for all comparisons). Overall, 172 (15%) service members met criteria for post-injury hearing loss and were categorised into PTA or single-frequency hearing loss subgroups. PTA hearing loss was more common in the BRI group (50% vs. 33%, <i>p</i> < 0.036), whereas single-frequency hearing loss was more common in the NBRI group. Most hearing loss was mild to moderate in degree, and three distinct audiometric patterns emerged (i.e. flat, sloping and rising). A flat pattern was the most prevalent configuration among those with PTA hearing loss, especially bilateral loss. Single-frequency hearing loss was mostly unilateral and high frequency.<b>Conclusions:</b> In this study, BRI produced hearing loss across test frequencies, generating more clinically actionable post-injury audiograms than NBRI. We found that post-injury audiometric patterns of hearing loss among military personnel may vary.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1499-2027",
doi="10.1080/14992027.2020.1743884",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14992027.2020.1743884"
}