Audiometric Configuration
The overall shape or pattern of hearing thresholds across frequencies as plotted on an audiogram, used to describe the type and degree of hearing loss.
Full Definition
Audiometric configuration describes the characteristic shape formed by plotting air-conduction thresholds at standard test frequencies (typically 250 Hz to 8000 Hz) on an audiogram. Named configurations — such as sloping, flat, cookie-bite (U-shaped), reverse-slope, and notched — communicate the audiological profile efficiently in clinical correspondence and reports. Editors in audiology must recognise these descriptors and reproduce them accurately; mistaking a 'notched' configuration (characteristic of noise-induced hearing loss) for a 'sloping' one, for example, carries clinical significance. Configuration is distinct from degree of hearing loss, which refers to the severity range.
Usage
Usage note: Named configurations (e.g., cookie-bite, notched, reverse-slope) are industry-accepted descriptors; do not place them in quotation marks after first use unless house style requires it.
In Context
- "The report described a bilateral high-frequency sloping audiometric configuration consistent with presbycusis." — Audiological Assessment Report
- "When copyediting the discharge summary, the editor preserved the clinician's description of a 'cookie-bite audiometric configuration' rather than substituting a generic term." — Clinical Document Editing