Ménière’s Disease
Ménière’s disease usually starts in one ear, with episodes of vertigo lasting 20 minutes to 12 hours, along with changing hearing, tinnitus, and a feeling of fullness in that ear. Early on, the loss is mostly at low pitches, as shown here, and it can come and go between episodes. Over the years it can become permanent and spread across all pitches. Its tinnitus is often a low roar; turning tinnitus on plays a low tone in both ears, which can only suggest it.
Summary
- Severity
- Mild36 dB HL
- Most loss at
- 250 Hz · 50 dB
Degree of the worse ear, averaged over all eight frequencies, on the scale used by U.S. audiologists (ASHA)
Pure-tone average (PTA)
- Left ear
- 37dB
- Mild
- Right ear
- 5dB
- Normal
What’s a pure-tone average?
Pure-tone average is the quietest tone each ear can just hear, averaged across three pitches central to speech (500 Hz, 1 kHz, and 2 kHz). It’s the single number U.S. audiologists use to sum up an audiogram. 15 dB or lower is normal hearing, and every 10 dB higher means sounds need to be about twice as loud to be heard. Internationally, the World Health Organization averages four pitches, adding 4 kHz, so where high pitches have more loss its number comes out higher.
Thresholds by frequency
| Hz | L | R |
|---|---|---|
| 250 | 50 | 5 |
| 500 | 45 | 5 |
| 1k | 40 | 5 |
| 2k | 25 | 5 |
| 3k | 25 | 10 |
| 4k | 30 | 10 |
| 6k | 35 | 10 |
| 8k | 40 | 15 |