Most commonly, "conventional" audiometry (utilising audiograms up to 8 kHz) is used to measure

hearing status. For research purposes, or early diagnosis of agerelated hearing loss, ultrahigh
fre!uency audiograms (up to "# kHz), re!uiring special audiometer cali$ration and headphones, can
$e measured.
%deally the audiogram &ould sho& a straight line, $ut in practice everyone is slightly different, and
small variations are considered normal. 'arger variations, especially $elo& the norm, may indicate
hearing impairment &hich occurs to some e(tent &ith increasing age, $ut may $e e(acer$ated $y
prolonged e(posure to fairly high noise levels such as $y living close to an airport or $usy road,
&ork related e(posure to high noise, or $rief e(posure to very high sound levels such as gunshot or
music in either a loud $and or clu$s and pu$s. Hearing impairment may also $e the result of certain
diseases such as )M* or M+ni,re-s disease and these can $e diagnosed from the shape of the
audiogram.
.tosclerosis results in an audiogram &ith significant loss at all fre!uencies, often of around /#
d0(H'). 1 deficiency particularly around " kHz (termed a )arhart notch in the audiogram) is
characteristic of either otosclerosis or a congenital ossicular anomaly.
M+ni,re-s disease results in a severe loss at lo& fre!uencies.
2oise induced deafness or sensorineural loss results in loss at high fre!uencies, especially around /
kHz and a$ove, depending on the nature of the e(posure to loud noise