Talk:Rinne test
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Information from Rinne test appeared on Portal:Medicine in the Did you know section on October 21, 2006. |
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[edit] Rinne test
I believe this page needs to be edited. I'm studying for upcoming nursing boards; I'm hopeful that someone with greater expertise than mine in otolaryngology will edit it.
The following link appears to indicate that the Wiki page contains errors. See below for ambiguous results from another expert. Nursing textbooks I've consulted appear to contradict each other.
From http://www.american-hearing.org/testing/hearing_test.html
Hearing Testing
Timothy C. Hain, MD Last edited: 5/4/2002
"The single most common office test is a tuning fork test called the Rinne, named after Adolf Rinne of Gottingen, who described this test in 1855. In the Rinne test, a comparison is made between hearing elicited by placing the base of a tuning fork applied to the mastoid area (bone), and then after the sound is no longer appreciated, the vibrating top is placed one inch from the external ear canal (air). A positive Rinne indicate an air-bone gap and, therefore, presumed presence of a conductive hearing loss..."
(c) Timothy C. Hain, MD. 2002
A description of Dr. Hain's credentials:
http://www.dizziness-and-balance.com/cv/hain-t.htm
This link from google books, a audiology textbook, explains how the test evolved into a timed test to be more accurate, rather than the older method of asking the patient which sound is perceived to be louder (by air or by bone conduction) and the nature of positive/negative results in the opinion of the author. It would appear that the convention for this test is not to use "positive" or "negative" to describe results, but for example, AC>BC or AC<BC, to avoid ambiguity.
