Objective: The objective of this study is to review the scientific literature to determine if a set of stimulus parameters can be described to elicit distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) of higher absolute level and/or greater reliability in healthy adult humans and higher sensitivity and specificity in adults with cochlear lesions.
Design: Systematic review.
Study sample: Searches of four electronic databases yielded 47 studies that had used different parameters to elicit DPOAEs from within or between-groups of adult humans.
Results: The wide range of stimulus parameters used in the reviewed studies saw a wide range of reported values for DPOAE level, reliability, and sensitivity and specificity to cochlear lesions.
Conclusion: The most commonly used stimulus parameters for eliciting DPOAEs from adult humans have included frequency ratios for the two primary tones (f2/f1) of between 1.04 and 1.4 and levels (L1/L2) of 65/55 dB SPL. The most commonly used parameters for eliciting DPOAEs of higher level in healthy adults appear to be linked to f2/f1 values between 1.20 and 1.22 and L1/L2 levels of 75/75 dB SPL. The stimulus parameters for eliciting DPOAEs of greater reliability in healthy adults and higher sensitivity and specificity in adults with cochlear lesions have yet to be clearly determined.
Keywords: Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs); adults; evidence-based practice; stimulus parameters; systematic review.