Hearing Immaturity Found by ABR and its Clinical Impact on Otoneurological Evaluation

Abstract

Kawarai H, Nishizaki K, Fukuda S, Akagi S, Inokuchi I, Gunduz M, Masuda A, Nakashima T, Fukushima K, Masuda Y.Hearing immaturity found by ABR and its clinical impact on otoneurological e6aluation. Acta Otolaryngol (Stockh) 1999; Suppl 540: 6 -11. Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) is the most reliable and most frequently used procedure to evaluate audiological conditions in early infancy. However, several reports have demonstrated that developmental change in the central nervous system may affect the results of ABR in audiological evaluations. We examined statistically the reliability of ABR for the diagnosis of profound deafness in early childhood according to our experience over the past 12 years of follow-up in our facility. Subjects included 371 children among 1,041 children who were admitted to Kanariya-Gakuen (institute for pre-school deaf children) from April 1985 to March 1997. These children were examined with ABR to determine their hearing levels. In five cases with an abnormal hearing threshold determined by ABR and other audiological tests, repeated examinations carried out during a 5-to 6-month follow-up period revealed that they had normal hearing. Three of these children had been diagnosed previously with mental retardation and the remaining two were infants B 5 months old. The specificity and sensitivity of ABR were calculated as 97.3% and 100%, respectively. The predictive value of a positive result was 94.7%. There remains the possibility of a false negative for such cases, although the rate seems to be very low (B 0.2%). Key words: Auditory Brainstem Response, deafness in children, hearing impairment, predicti6e 6alue of positi6e result, retardation of auditory de6elopment, sensiti6ity and specificity.

Effects of Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) on Measuring Children’s Auditory Functions: An Experimental Investigation

“…Subjects' ages were associated with the degree of hearing problems, and no significant difference was registered among all participants neither in their pre-test nor in their posttest ABR measurements. This conclusion agrees with the findings of many other studies (Kawarai, et al, 1999;Johnson & Brown, 2005;Hornickel, et al, 2012;Silva, et al, 2012;Öztürk &Genç, 2012).…”

“…Thus, when an infant or a child has auditory deficit, the first assessment tool neuropsycholinguists prescribe for him is ABR. The purpose of Kawarai, et al, (1999)'s study was to statistically examine the reliability of ABR for the diagnosis of profound deafness in early childhood according to our experience over the past 12 years of follow-up in our facility. Subjects of the study included 371 children among 1,041 children who were admitted to Kanariya-Gakuen (institute for pre-school deaf children) from April 1985to March 1997.…”