Abstract
For years Sri Lankan Audiologists resorted to western norms in the interpretation of Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) in the absence of national standards. The study focused on establishing normative data on ABR for Sri Lankan children below 5 years. ABR was performed on 258 healthy children between 6 weeks and 5 years of age to gather data on absolute latencies and inter-peak latencies.All inter-aural differences were within 0.2-0.4ms. The mean inter-aural difference for the study sample was significantly small (-0.0204ms to 0.0286ms). Mean values of absolute latencies for waves I, III, V for the 6-week age group at 30dBnHL were 3.33 ms, 5.91 ms and 8.27 ms respectively. Mean values of inter-peak latencies of wave I-III, III-V, I-V were 2.08 ms, 2.36 ms and 4.76 ms respectively for the 6-week age group at 30 dBnHL. The normative ABR data obtained in this study may be used across audiology clinics in Sri Lanka as a baseline measurement to diagnose hearing loss among children from infancy to 5 years of age when children are tested in their natural sleep and insert earphones are used. The mean value plus 2 standard deviations for each ABR measure may be used as the upper limit cutoff values. Hence this study helps eliminate misdiagnosis and under-diagnosis of hearing loss in children.
Highlights
Auditory Brainstem Response has been recognized as a valuable diagnostic tool in identifying hearing disorders in the paediatric population
Establishing normative data in terms absolute latencies, inter-peak latencies, peak amplitudes, amplitude ratios, inter-peak latency ratios and latency-intensity function curves are advantageous.As Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) latencies are prolonged in infants and children, relative to that of adults[1], the use of adult normative values of ABR in the evaluation of infants and children may result in errors and may label a child who is in no way hearing impaired as having a hearing loss
This study shows that wave V is present from 70 dB to 30 dB bilaterally for all age groups
Summary
Auditory Brainstem Response has been recognized as a valuable diagnostic tool in identifying hearing disorders in the paediatric population. Establishing normative data in terms absolute latencies, inter-peak latencies, peak amplitudes, amplitude ratios, inter-peak latency ratios and latency-intensity function curves are advantageous.As ABR latencies are prolonged in infants and children, relative to that of adults[1], the use of adult normative values of ABR in the evaluation of infants and children may result in errors and may label a child who is in no way hearing impaired as having a hearing loss. This creates the necessity to establish a separate set of normative data for the paediatric population. The adult values of wave I amplitude was reached at 6 months and of wave V at 2 years of age
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