Estimation of the slope of the audiogram with the auditory brain stem response

A practical procedure is described for obtaining frequency specific information with the auditory brain stem response (ABR). ABR thresholds were determined with a 4 kHz sine wave and with a 1 kHz sine wave combined with high pass filtered masking noise (cut-off 2 kHz). The differences between these 2 thresholds were compared with the slopes of the tonal audiogram, in a sample of 30 ears with various kinds of perceptive hearing loss. The test is in conformity with the theoretical knowledge about the ABR, and can be performed in routine practice.