Question:medium
A patient presented with c/o hearing loss and the otoscopy finding shown. What will be the Rinne test finding?
A patient presented with c/o hearing loss and the otoscopy finding shown. What will be the Rinne test finding?
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Conductive loss gives BC > AC (Rinne negative); if the otoscopy proves real middle-ear disease, the negative is true.
Updated On: Jun 22, 2026
- True positive
- True negative
- False positive
- False negative
Show Solution
The Correct Option is B
Solution and Explanation
Work from the otoscopy to the expected tuning-fork result.
The ear examination reveals middle-ear / eardrum pathology, which mechanically blocks sound transmission and produces a conductive hearing loss in that ear.
Now recall what the Rinne test should show in conductive loss. The Rinne compares air conduction (AC) and bone conduction (BC):
- Normal ear: $AC > BC$ = Rinne positive.
- Conductive loss: the ossicular/air pathway is blocked, so the patient hears better through the skull bone, $BC > AC$ = Rinne negative.
So this conductive ear should be Rinne negative. The remaining question is whether that negative is "true" or "false":
- A true negative means the negative Rinne genuinely reflects conductive disease in the tested ear - which is exactly what the otoscopy proves here.
- A false negative is a trap reserved for a dead/severely sensorineural ear: the bone-conducted sound is actually picked up by the healthy opposite cochlea (cross-hearing), making it look conductive when it is not.
Since this patient has demonstrable middle-ear pathology, the negative result is authentic, i.e. a true negative.
Therefore the Rinne finding is True negative (option B).
The ear examination reveals middle-ear / eardrum pathology, which mechanically blocks sound transmission and produces a conductive hearing loss in that ear.
Now recall what the Rinne test should show in conductive loss. The Rinne compares air conduction (AC) and bone conduction (BC):
- Normal ear: $AC > BC$ = Rinne positive.
- Conductive loss: the ossicular/air pathway is blocked, so the patient hears better through the skull bone, $BC > AC$ = Rinne negative.
So this conductive ear should be Rinne negative. The remaining question is whether that negative is "true" or "false":
- A true negative means the negative Rinne genuinely reflects conductive disease in the tested ear - which is exactly what the otoscopy proves here.
- A false negative is a trap reserved for a dead/severely sensorineural ear: the bone-conducted sound is actually picked up by the healthy opposite cochlea (cross-hearing), making it look conductive when it is not.
Since this patient has demonstrable middle-ear pathology, the negative result is authentic, i.e. a true negative.
Therefore the Rinne finding is True negative (option B).
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