Auditory Steady-State Responses for estimating moderate hearing loss

摘要

The Auditory Steady-State Response (ASSR) has gained popularity as an alternativetechnique for objective audiometry but its use in less severe degrees of hearing loss hasbeen questioned. The aim of this study was to investigate the usefulness of the ASSR inestimating moderate degrees of hearing loss. Seven subjects (12 ears) with moderatesensorineural hearing loss between 15 and 18 years of ages were enrolled in the study. 48behavioural and ASSR thresholds were obtained across the frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2, and 4kHz. ASSR thresholds were determined using a dichotic multiple frequency recordingtechnique. Mean threshold differences varied between 2 and 8 dB (±7-10 dB SD) acrossfrequencies. The highest difference and variability was recorded at 0.5 kHz. The frequencies1 – 4 kHz also revealed significantly better correlations (0.74 – 0.88) compared to 0.5 kHz(0.31). Comparing correlation coefficients for behavioural thresholds less than 60 dB and 60dB and higher revealed a significant difference. 86% of ASSR thresholds correspondedwithin 5 dB of moderate to severe behavioural thresholds compared to only 29% for mild tomoderate thresholds in this study. The results confirm that the ASSR can reliably estimatedbehavioural thresholds of 60 dB and higher, but due to increased variability caution isrecommended when estimating behavioural thresholds of less than 60 dB, especially at 0.5kHz.