Tinnitus

Introduction Tinnitus refers to the abnormal sound sensation that people produce without any external stimuli. It is often a harbinger of deafness caused by disordered hearing function. Caused by ear lesions often coincide with deafness or vertigo. Caused by other factors, it may not be accompanied by deafness or dizziness. Tinnitus is mostly noise, intermittent, and persistent. There are a variety of performances such as single-band narrowband noise or white noise. There are many reasons for tinnitus, which is often accompanied by certain diseases, especially the symptoms of heavy hearing.

Cause

Tinnitus is a disorder of auditory function and a response of the analyzer to appropriate and inappropriate stimuli.

Tinnitus can be divided into two major categories: central and peripheral. Peripheral tinnitus is based on whether it is subjective or non-pulsating tinnitus and objective or pulsating tinnitus. The former is more common and the latter is rare. Tinnitus can be divided into persistent tinnitus and rhythmic tinnitus according to its characteristics. Continuous tinnitus can have a mixture of single or multiple frequency tones, and more subjective tinnitus. Rhythmic tinnitus is more consistent with vascular beating, occasionally consistent with breathing, and the frequency of tinnitus is lower. If the muscle contraction is caused, the frequency of tinnitus is higher. Rhythmic tinnitus, mostly objective tinnitus.

an examination

Related inspection

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Tinnitus is mostly a subjective sensation and difficult to detect, but the intensity and frequency of tinnitus can be measured by a pure tone audiometer for frequency matching and loudness balance.

Objective tinnitus can be checked with a hearing aid or a stethoscope. If you suspect that you have a diaphragmatic palsy, you can use the EMG examination to put the electrodes in the muscles, and remember the relationship between potential changes and tinnitus during muscle activity. X-ray angiography can help diagnose vascular malformations, arteriovenous and vascular distribution. Cervical x-ray films can be used to check for the presence or absence of bone hyperplasia. X-ray tomography, CT skull scan to exclude intracranial lesions.

Differential diagnosis

It should be differentiated from the following symptoms:

1. Neurological tinnitus:

Neurological tinnitus is characterized by large or small tinnitus sounds, generally continuous long sounds, such as humming or the sound of telephones, as well as sounds like running water, wind, and machine sound.

2. Conductive tinnitus:

The cause of conductive tinnitus is the obstruction of the conductive part of the auditory system, such as swelling of the external auditory canal, occlusion, perforation of the tympanic membrane, invagination, inflammation of the middle ear, adhesion, and hardening. The sound barrier reduces the ability to listen to the outside world, weakens its role in masking the sounds that occur in the body, allowing it to feel and become tinnitus. Moreover, the sound transmitted into the ear through the bone conduction is blocked by the conduction barrier, and the outward escape channel is blocked, thereby improving the feeling of the sound in the ear, becoming a low-frequency, whirling sound like a wind. . We can try it ourselves, use one hand to cover the ear, and feel the sound of the thunder in the ear. This is the typical conductive tinnitus.

3. Pulsating tinnitus:

Pulsating tinnitus is the patient's complaint that the ear has a heart-like or vascular pulse-like tinnitus. Some sounds like a wave or a pulse, which is very regular. The beat rhythm is carefully observed. Most of them are consistent with the number of heart beats. Such tinnitus is often summarized as objective tinnitus.

The material in this site is intended to be of general informational use and is not intended to constitute medical advice, probable diagnosis, or recommended treatments.