Prognostic validity of brainstem electric response audiometry in infants of a neonatal intensive care unit.
This study compared the results of brainstem electric response audiometry (BERA) in infants of a neonatal intensive care unit to those obtained on the same children with pure-tone audiometry at 3 years of age. Six hundred children were initially tested in infancy, and complete follow-up information was obtained on 333. In 297 (89%) the BERA results accurately predicted the hearing status at the age of 3 years. Twenty-nine (9%) of the discrepancies were related to conductive hearing losses: 17 patients with a conductive hearing loss in the first few months of life had normal hearing at 3 years, and 12 patients normal in infancy had a conductive loss at 3 years. Two patients evaluated as a sensorineural hearing loss by BERA had normal hearing. These may have been due to a conductive loss. Six patients assessed as normal by BERA had significant hearing losses at the age of 3 years. Five of these had normal hearing at one frequency between 1,000 and 4,000 Hz. The sixth may have developed a sensorineural hearing loss after birth.
Durieux-Smith
A
A
Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, Canada.
Picton
T W
TW
Bernard
P
P
MacMurray
B
B
Goodman
J T
JT
D001300:Audiometry, Evoked Response; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006314:Hearing Loss, Conductive / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D011379:Prognosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results