Abstract:

Objective To investigate the significance of auditory brainstem response （ABR） combined with auditory steady?state response （ASSR） for the assessment of mild sensorineural hearing loss in infants. Methods Data from 114 infants with mild sensorineural hearing loss were retrospectively analyzed， and their ABR and ASSR results were collected for rank sum test and correlation analysis. Results In the rank sum test， the difference in thresholds between tone?burst ABR （Tb?ABR） and ASSR at 0.5，1，2，4 kHz was statistically significant （P < 0.05）， and they were also correlated at 0.5， 1，2，4 kHz （P < 0.05）， r = 0.613， 0.569， 0.616， 0.71. After grouping by gender and ear， there was a correlation between ABR and ASSR at 0.5， 1，2， and 4 kHz， male： r = 0.61， 0.56， 0.671， 0.774； female： r = 0.581， 0.558， 0.546， 0.608； left ear： r = 0.61， 0.558， 0.576， 0.715； right ear： r = 0.631， 0.581， 0.662， 0.71. And after grouping by age at diagnosis， only infants diagnosed from 7 ~ 12 months of age did not correlate at 0.5 kHz and 1 kHz （P > 0.05）， while the rest of the groups had a good correlation （P < 0.05），0 ~ 3 months： r = 0.686， 0.643， 0.671， 0.742； 4 ~ 6 months： r = 0.671， 0.626， 0.616， 0.693； 7 ~ 12 months at 2 kHz and 4 kHz： r = 0.571， 0.706. Conclusion In infants with mild sensorineural hearing loss， ABR and ASSR correlate in assessing hearing thresholds at all frequencies， and the combination of the two tests could provide a more accurate assessment of the subject's true hearing.

Key words: mild sensorineural hearing loss, auditory brainstem response, auditory steady?state response, infant