Abstract
Click-evoked otoacoustic emissions appear to be an efficient way to assess cochlear function in infants and neonates. A new technique developed by Bray and Kemp (1987) enables data to be gathered under clinical conditions. A total of 310 children aged between one day and five years were examined in a realistic clinical situation: 204 of them were admitted to the authors' outpatient department for evaluation of a hearing impairment and 106 were special-care babies or normal newborns. Otoacoustic emissions were successfully tested in 244 of these 310 children at the first attempt after performing behavioural tests. A classification of the emissions by the coefficient of the cross-correlation function and the frequency response spectrum was used. Emissions were observed in 95% (n = 181 ears) of the three- to five-year-old children with a mean behavioural threshold better than 20 dB. In 82% (40/49) of the special-care babies and in 89% (51/57) of the normal newborns a successful emission recording was be obtained. Such findings suggest that this technique for detecting emissions may be useful in early diagnosis of hearing impairments, especially when combined with simple behavioural tests.
Published Version
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