The importance of considering the minimum interaural attenuation value in the masking procedure of pure-tone audiometry

In pure-tone audiometry (PTA) testing, air conduction (AC) and bone conduction (BC) thresholds are documented accordingly to obtain complete information on the hearing status. Nevertheless, due to the cross-hearing phenomenon, a masking procedure is typically implemented in PTA as an effort to obtain the exact (masked) AC and BC thresholds. As indicated by the respective masking rules, the decision to carry out the masking procedure is based on the “suggested” minimum interaural attenuation (IAA), which is 40 dB (for headphones), regardless of frequency. In this case report, the importance of considering the minimum IAA value based on research findings is highlighted. In particular, to produce more reliable PTA results, the masking procedure can be conducted by considering a lower IAA value (<40 dB).