Effect of low frequency noise on the echocardiographic parameter E/A ratio

Abstract

The hearing condition of the Taiwanese aerospace maintenance workers affected by the low frequency noise had not been reported. The purpose of this research is to clarify the maintenance workers′ health effect when exposed to low frequency and/or general noises and to understand the relationship between the variations of the worker′s echocardiographic E/A ratio and the low frequency noise. The low frequency noise monitoring and echocardiographic E/A ratio results obtained for 213 aerospace maintenance workers indicated that the workers′ hearing loss was more serious at high frequency 4k and 6k when exposed to the low frequency noise and could be more than 40 dB. The abnormality of echocardiographic E/A ratio was also higher than that of control group.

Keywords

• Echocardiography E/A ratio
• hearing loss
• low frequency noise