TEOAE recording protocols revised: data from adult subjects

The objective of this study was the experimental re-evaluation of the current clinical transiently evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) protocols, based on linear and non-linear protocol paradigms from a population of 42 adult subjects serving as a normative database. The linear and non-linear TEOAE responses were elicited by clicks with average intensities of 72 and 84 dB p.e. SPL respectively. An initial comparison between non-processed non-linear and linear recordings, at early recording segments from 3.2 to 5.2 ms, showed that the responses had highly similar contours and no statistically significant mean differences. The stimulus-induced artefact in the linear TEOAE responses was suppressed by postprocessing the data with a window function (3.8–13.8 ms) and by a high-pass filter at 830 Hz. A repeated-measures model was used to evaluate the differences between post-processed linear and non-linear responses across clinical variables of interest (such as TEOAE response, noise, correlation, and signal-to-...