Extended High Frequency (EHF) hearing test in Toronto

What is EHF hearing test

Extended High Frequency hearing test is a test that measures the patient’s hearing threshold outside of the conventional audiogram. A standard audiogram measures the hearing threshold from 250Hz to 8000Hz. An EHF test goes above that and tests up to 16kHz or even 20kHz. 

Why is EHF hearing loss important

There is a high prevalence of people with EHF loss. In the presence of a normal conventional audiogram result. 64% had EHF impairment among 18-65-year-olds, and 56% of adults under 30 years had EHF loss (Motlagh Zadeh et al., 2019). This explains why some people presents a “normal hearing” but complain of difficulty listening to speech in a noisy environment. 25.3 million Americans have hearing difficulty but no hearing impairment (Edwards, 2020). EHF may be one reason contributing to this difficulty.

EHF hearing loss in children

In an interview with Dr Mishra (Professor of Department of Communication Science and Disorder from University of Texas in Jun 2022), he mentioned EHF in children. 

“It is well known that many classrooms for young children can be very noisy, and children must learn in suboptimal acoustic environments. Children with EHF hearing loss will miss out on the potential advantage provided by the EHF audibility. This lack of EHF advantage may exacerbate the effects of other factors such as inattentiveness for children. Occasionally, since the clinical audiogram is normal, EHF hearing loss could potentially mimic learning disorders leading to misdiagnosis.”

Causes of EHF hearing loss

EHF loss has many reasons, such as noise exposure, ototoxic medication, infections etc. A words used frequently in recent years is “hidden hearing loss”. These are hearing loss not detected using standard audiometry testing up to 8kHz, and possibly could be explained by testing the person’s threshold at extended high frequencies. 

EHF hearing test in hearing clinic

Today, EHF is often used for ototoxic monitoring, tinnitus consultation, and consultation for “normal hearing” individuals that are having trouble communication in noise. If you are curious about your hearing, or your child’s hearing, or is on an ototoxic medication, EHF hearing test can be a helpful test to obtain a baseline of your hearing health.

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References:

Edwards, B. (2020). Emerging technologies, market segments, and MarkeTrak 10 insights in hearing health technology. Seminars in Hearing, 41(1), 37–54. doi:10.1055/s-0040-1701244

Motlagh Zadeh, L., Silbert, N. H., Sternasty, K., Swanepoel, D. W., Hunter, L. L., & Moore, D. R. (2019). Extended high-frequency hearing enhances speech perception in noise. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(47), 23753–23759. 10.1073/pnas.1903315116

Mishra, S.K. (2022). 20Q: Extended high frequency hearing loss – translating science into clinical practice. AudiologyOnline, Article 28181. Available at www.audiologyonline.com