title: [Objective auditory brainstem response threshold deficits in patients with cerebellopontine angle tumors].
abstract: The established criteria of auditory brainstem responses (ABR) such as JV latency, JI-V interpeak latency and interaural differences of latency or amplitude have been found to be sensitive for detecting tumors of the cerebellopontine angle if a response is present. However, the ABR can be absent in cases of acoustic neuromas because of desynchronization, even though pure-one audiometry indicates that responses should be present. This retrospective study compared the ABR and pure-tone thresholds in 234 cases with cerebellopontine angle tumors and a control group of 181 cases with sensory hearing losses in order to quantify threshold discrepancies. The average deficit of the objective ABR threshold (DOABRT) to the subjective pure-tone threshold for those frequencies between 1-6 kHz was 3.6 dB for the control group (ABR and pure tone thresholds very close) and 31.2 dB for the tumor group (ABR threshold much higher than the pure-tone threshold). ABR thresholds 30 dB higher than the high-frequency pure tone thresholds were found in 40.6% of the tumor group and in none of the control group. Thus, deficits of the ABR threshold >30 dB can be considered to be an additional criterion for detecting retrocochlear disease and increases ABR sensitivity for tumor detection even if responses are absent.
authors.affiliation: HNO-Klinik, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Marangos
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schipper
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Richter
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009464:Neuroma, Acoustic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity