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A Method for Tracking the Time Evolution of Steady-State Evoked Potentials
Published on: May 25, 2019
Threshold prediction in children with sensorioneural hearing loss using the auditory steady-state responses and
Gabriela Ribeiro Ivo Rodrigues1, Dóris Ruthi Lewis
1Audiology and Speech Pathology Program, Catholic University of São Paulo, Hearing in Children Center, São Paulo, Brazil. gabrielaivo@hotmail.com
Insights
Multiple Auditory Steady-State Responses (ASSRs) show strong correlation with Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) and behavioral hearing tests in infants. This suggests ASSRs can be a reliable alternative for assessing hearing loss in young children.
Area of Science:
- Audiology
- Pediatric Medicine
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Infants and young children with sensorineural hearing loss require accurate audiological assessments.
- Traditional methods like Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) and behavioral audiometry have limitations in this population.
- Auditory Steady-State Responses (ASSRs) offer a potential alternative for objective hearing threshold measurement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare Auditory Steady-State Response (ASSR) thresholds with tone-evoked Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) thresholds.
- To compare ASSR thresholds with behavioral audiometry thresholds in infants and young children.
- To evaluate the efficacy of ASSRs as a diagnostic tool for hearing loss in pediatric populations.
Main Methods:
- The study included 17 infants and young children (2 months to 3 years) diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss.
- ASSR thresholds were recorded and compared against tone-evoked ABR thresholds.
- ASSR thresholds were also compared with behavioral audiometry results obtained during follow-up assessments at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz.
Main Results:
- High correlations were observed between tone-evoked ABR and ASSR thresholds across frequencies (0.76–0.91).
- ASSRs demonstrated strong correlations (Pearson r > 0.94) with behavioral hearing thresholds at all tested frequencies.
- These findings indicate a high degree of agreement between ASSRs and established audiological measures.
Conclusions:
- Multiple ASSRs provide reliable hearing threshold data in infants and young children with hearing impairment.
- ASSRs show strong correlations with both ABR and behavioral audiometry, supporting their use as an alternative assessment tool.
- Further research is warranted to solidify the role of ASSRs in pediatric audiology, but current data show promising results.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to compare ASSRs to tone-evoked ABR and to behavioral thresholds obtained on follow-up audiometry at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz in infants and young children.
Methods:
The study included 17 infants and young children ages between 2 months and 3 years old, with sensorineural hearing loss. The ASSRs thresholds were compared with the tone-evoked ABR thresholds, and with the behavioral thresholds obtained on follow-up audiometry.
Results:
The correlation of tone-evoked ABR and ASSRs thresholds at 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz was 0.91, 0.76, 0.81, 0.89, respectively. ASSRs and behavioral hearing thresholds obtained on follow-up were highly correlated, with Pearson r values exceeding 0.94 at each of the test frequencies.
Conclusions:
Multiple ASSRs have strong correlations to tone-evoked ABR and to behavioral thresholds obtained during follow-up in hearing impaired infants and young children. These results might be useful in order to provide further evidence for the use of multiple ASSRs, as an alternative tool to tone-evoked ABR, although further data are still required.
