CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE STENGER SPEECH TEST

A speech Stenger test by the numeral words of the German ,,Freiburger' ' test material (DIN 45621) has been conducted in 46 cases of suspecte d pseudohypacusis. Positive Stenger was produced by 30 patients (65%). 20 patients were sent from an otorhinolaryngologist with the diagnosi s of inexplicable hearing loss and 16 of them (80%) showed a positive Stenger test. 10 (30%) of the 30 Stenger-positive patients get previou sly a CT and/or a MRT to exclude as acoustic neuroma. The pseudohypacu sis was pretended in 56,7% to the right ear. The interaural difference of the speech level for full lateralisation is 10 dB. The sound level if the percentage of repeated words decreased, was higher in only 56. 7% compared with the sound level on the ear with better hearing. 73% o f the positive speech Stenger test showed that the percentage of the r epeated numeral words did not drop immediately from 100 to 0%; we noti ced intermediate values. To understand these better we initiated later alisation tests in normal hearing people. In a second experience they were asked to simulate unilateral deafness. The interaural difference of the speech level in the Stenger test with simulated unilateral deaf ness was about 4 dB less than with normal hearing. Concentration to on e ear might have some influence on the interaural difference of the sp eech level that leads to full lateralisation. All persons attained int ermediate values and it was shown that all repeated words were heard i n the direction of the normal hearing ear.