Objective: The aims of the study are to investigate the effect of hearing loss, age, and gender on the outcome of the cochlear hydrops analysis masking procedure (CHAMP) and to assess the clinical utility of CHAMP for the diagnosis of Ménière's disease (MD).
Study design: Prospective observational study.
Setting: Otolaryngology department of a tertiary referral hospital.
Patients: We recruited MD patients (MD, 12 subjects) and hearing loss patients (HL, 10 subjects). Control subjects (NC, 43 subjects) were matched for gender and age.
Intervention: CHAMP was performed in the patients and control subjects.
Main outcome measure: The mean difference in latency between the wave V for the click alone response and wave V for the 0.5-kHz high-pass masking noise condition was compared among groups, and the effects of gender and age on the results were analyzed in the NC group.
Results: Both the MD group and the HL group had a smaller difference in latency compared to the NC group. The MD group and HL group showed no significant difference in latency. In the NC group, there were no significant differences in latency depending on gender and age.
Conclusions: Hearing level seems to significantly affect the CHAMP results, making it unreliable to differentiate between MD patients and non-MD hearing loss patients. Therefore, the diagnostic value of CHAMP might be limited in MD.