Comparison of newborn hearing screening by transient otoacoustic emissions and auditory brainstem response using ALGO-2.
The aim of this study is to compare pass rates for two different hearing screening methods in well newborns as a function of age. A previous study by this group compared click evoked otoacoustic emissions (EOAE) and automated auditory brainstem response (ABR) using the ALGO-1 infant hearing screener (Natus Medical, Foster City, CA). Since that study, a new generation automated ABR screener, the ALGO-2, has been developed. In this study, 232 ears in 116 healthy newborn infants aged 5-48 h were tested using the ALGO-2 screener and EOAE. Overall, 92% of ears passed the ABR, while 57% passed the EOAE screen. The ABR pass rate was higher than in the previous study, where 88.5% of ears passed the ABR screen using ALGO-1. The EOAE pass rate in the present study was lower than in the previous study, in which 79% passed the EOAE screen. Pass rates for both EOAE and ABR improved significantly with increasing infant age. There was no significant difference in the test time required for ALGO-2 (5.7 min) compared with EOAE (5.2 min). The results are compared with earlier studies and implications for universal hearing screening are discussed.
Doyle
K J
KJ
Department of Neurology, University of California Irvine, Orange, USA.
Fujikawa
S
S
Rogers
P
P
Newman
E
E
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D005260:Female; D006320:Hearing Tests / Q000295:instrumentation; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D015997:Neonatal Screening / Q000295:instrumentation; D017084:Otoacoustic Emissions, Spontaneous