AboutDina Q Goldin, Ph.D. Expertise Information and advice for Acoustic Neuroma patients who would like honest patient-to-patient interaction about their symptoms or about treatments and related medical procedures. If you are unsure if your experience is "normal", or are wondering whether your information is complete, feel free to ask.
Experience I am an Acoustic Neuroma patient and the founding editor
of the Acoustic Neuroma Patient Archive (http://www.ANarchive.org).
My 17 year old daughter developed persistent, unilateral ear ringing (tinnitus) about one and half months ago(March 8, 2008), it's a high-pitched sound, but, can only be heard at bed time, or in a quiet place, like a room in a house. audiogram up to 8kHz shows her hearing asymmetrical and normal. do you think this audiogram(up to 8kHz) suffices to say she has no asymmetrical hearing loss, esp. in high-frequency? audioscopy checked that her out, and middle ear are fine.
from your practice and clinical experience, could you tell me if persistent unilateral tinnitus is very likely related to Acoustic Neuroma, I am so worried becauses nothing could explain her unilateral tinnitus. she has allergy problem since she was very young, and frequent sneezing, especially, in the winter time, and bed time.
Dr. Goldin, please help me, and explain more on early signs and symptoms of Acoustic Neuroma, and what's your findings from your experience?
Thanks very much!
Judy
Answer Dear Judy,
A hearing test is completely insufficient in your daughter's case. Tinnitus indicates that something is impinging on the hearing nerve, whereas this test looks at the condition of the hearing apparatus itself. What she needs is a test known as BSER (Brainstem Evoked Response) or ABER. These are easy and inexpensive tests that will be able to confirm that her hearing nerve is being impinged.
There can be various causes for tinnitus. Acoustic Neuroma is a possibility, but the symptoms you describe are not conclusive, so it is impossible to know until proper diagnostic tests are performed. If the BSER test confirms a problem, an MRI will probably be recommended as a more precise (and expensive) diagnostic tool.
If the audiogram was ordered by your doctor, I would recommend working with a different doctor to get your daughter's problem diagnosed. In particular, I suggest that you look for a neurologist rather than an ENT.
