is pattern of acceptable noise level growth for apparently normal contralateral ear similar to affected ear in unilateral meniere’s disease?

Background and aim: the acceptance noise level (anl) which determines the tolerablenoise level while listening to running speech, is related to factors such as hearing loss andspeech presentation level. this study aims to investigate the effect of speech presentation levelon the anl in people with unilateral meniere’s disease (md) compared to the normal-hearingpeople.methods: in this study, 33 people aged 32–60 years with unilateral md and 38 normal-hearingpeople aged 20–46 years participated. the anl growth was evaluated unilaterally at fourdifferent speech presentation levels: most comfortable level (mcl), –10 db lower than themcl, +10 db higher than the mcl, and a range between mcl and uncomfortable level.results: in md patients, the anl of the affected ear was significantly different from that ofthe contralateral ear (p<0.010). compared to the normal-hearing people, the pattern of anlgrowth in md patients was significantly different, but the anl growth patterns were similarbetween the affected and contralateral ears.conclusion: anl and its growth pattern are different between the affected and contralateralears of patients with unilateral md, but are similar compared to normal-hearing people.despite the apparently normal hearing thresholds, the performance of the contralateral ear innoise at various speech presentation levels in patients with unilateral md seems to be similarto that of the affected ear.