occ aud testing part1- a o e c（occ aud测试part1 - o e c）（7页）.docVIP

Occupational Audiometric Testing Part 2: Interpretation and Referral Lecture narration / notes for slides Thomas W. Rimmer, ScD, CIH Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Slide 1 This is the second part of the lecture on occupational audiometric testing. In this part we’ll look at how to interpret audiograms according to the OSHA regulations and what actions to take after doing the interpretation. Also covered will be interpretation of audiograms to determine degree of impairment (for workers’ compensation purposes) and also when the audiometric technician needs to refer a subject for professional testing by an audiologist. Slide 2 The most basic element in the interpretation of the results is comparison of the annual audiogram to the baseline audiogram. We do this for each ear separately, so we’re doing this comparison for the right ear on the annual test compared to the right ear on the baseline and then for the left ear on the annual compared to the left ear on the baseline. If we subtract the threshold on the baseline audiogram at each frequency from the threshold at that same frequency on the annual audiogram, that gives us what is called the “threshold shift”. In the chart on this slide, you see the baseline and annual thresholds for the right ear. Subtracting the baseline from the annual results gives us the threshold shift for our example, which ranges from 0 dB to 15 dB. Once we have this information, then we can do further interpretation. Slide 3 Once we have the threshold shifts computed, we will look more specifically at the results at 2000, 3000, and 4000 Hertz to see if what’s known as a “standard threshold shift” has occurred. The STS is defined as greater than or equal to a 10 dB average shift at those three frequencies, which are the frequencies that are most sensitive to the effects of noise. The idea is that if at least 10 dB of hearing loss has occurred, then we need to be looking at the pe