Toward a Diagnostic Test for Hidden Hearing Loss.
Christopher J Plack, Agnès Léger, Garreth Prendergast, Karolina Kluk, Hannah Guest, Kevin J Munro
PMID 27604783WHAT IT FOUND
No diagnostic test for hidden hearing loss is currently validated for clinical use.
Researchers are exploring auditory brainstem responses and behavioral measures, but variability and lack of gold-standard validation in humans remain major obstacles.
What this paper is
This is a theoretical review discussing the potential development of diagnostic tests for hidden hearing loss. It reviews existing literature and proposes future validation strategies but does not report new clinical trials, patient outcomes, or validated diagnostic criteria. There is nothing here to change your practice on.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that standard audiometry can rule out cochlear synaptopathy or that the proposed electrophysiological measures are ready for clinical diagnosis. The paper explicitly states that a reliable and validated diagnostic test for this disorder is currently absent.