Prediction of hearing sensitivity with multiple auditory steady-state responses (MASTER) for severe to profound hearing loss

Objective. To evaluate Auditory Steady-State Responses (ASSR) at high intensities in pediatric cochlear implant candidates and to compare the results to behavioral tests responses.Methods. This prospective study evaluated 42 children with suspected severe-to-profound hearing loss, aged from 3 to 72 months. All had absent ABR and OAE responses. ASSR were evoked using binaural single frequency stimuli at 110 dB HL with a 10 dB down-seeking procedure. ASSR and behavioral test results were compared.Results. Forty-two subjects completed both ASSR and behavioral evaluation. Eleven children (26.2%) had bilateral responses. Four (9.5%) showed unilateral responses in at least two frequencies, all confirmed by behavioral results. Overall 61 ASSR responses were obtained, most (37.7%) in 500 Hz. Mean thresholds were between 101.3 and 104.2 dB HL. Among 27 subjects with absent ASSR, fifteen had no behavioral responses. Seven subjects showed behavioral responses with absent ASSR responses. No spurious ASSR responses were observed at 100 or 110 dB HL.Conclusion. ASSR is a valuable tool to detect residual hearing. No false-positive ASSR results were observed among 42 children, but in seven cases with absent ASSR, the test underestimated residual hearing as compared to the behavioral responses.

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Estimating Air-Bone Gaps Using Auditory Steady-State Responses

Journal of the American Academy of Audiology ◽

10.3766/jaaa.15.1.7 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 15 (01) ◽

pp. 067-078 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Fuh-Cherng Jeng ◽

Carolyn J. Brown ◽

Tiffany A. Johnson ◽

Kathy R. Vander Werff

Keyword(s):

Hearing Loss ◽

Steady State ◽

Bone Conduction ◽

Strongly Correlated ◽

Profound Hearing Loss ◽

Stimulus Artifact ◽

Steady State Responses ◽

Auditory Steady State Responses ◽

Conductive Hearing ◽

State Responses

Auditory steady-state responses (ASSR) were recorded using stimuli presented both via air conduction (AC ASSR) and bone conduction (BC ASSR) in 10 normal-hearing subjects with different degrees of simulated conductive hearing losses. The ASSR-estimated ABG (air-bone gap) was compared with the ABG measured using traditional pure-tone audiometric procedures. Reproducibility of the BC ASSR electrophysiological thresholds was also assessed. Additionally, a group of five subjects with profound sensorineural hearing loss was used to establish stimulation levels in which the BC ASSR was contaminated by stimulus artifact. Results of this investigation showed that the ASSR and behavioral ABGs were strongly correlated with each other (r = .81). However, ASSR-estimated ABGs slightly overestimated the magnitude of the behavioral. Reproducibility of the BC ASSR electrophysiological thresholds was good. Data from the five subjects with profound hearing loss, however, demonstrated that the levels where stimulus artifact became problematic were relatively low. This means BC stimulation may be appropriate only for subjects with normal or mildly impaired cochlear sensitivity.

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