title: Audiograms estimated from brainstem tone-evoked potentials in dogs from 10 days to 1.5 months of age.
abstract: The objective of this study was to build audiograms from thresholds of brainstem tone-evoked potentials in dogs and to evaluate age-related change of the audiogram in puppies. Results were obtained from 9 Beagle puppies 10-47 days of age. Vertex to mastoid brainstem auditory-evoked potentials in response to 5.1-millisecond Hanning-gated sine waves with frequencies octave-spaced from 0.5 to 32 kHz were recorded. Three dogs were examined at 10, 13, 19, 25, and 45 days. Four other dogs were examined at 16 days. Data from 7 dogs between 42 and 47 days of age were pooled to obtain audiogram reference values in 1.5-month-old puppies. The best auditory threshold lowered from above 60 dB sound pressure level (SPL) to values close to 0 dB SPL between 13 and 25 days of age and then stabilized. The audible frequency range widened, including 32 kHz in all tested dogs from the 19th day. In the 7 1.5-month-old puppies, the mean auditory threshold decreased by 11 dB per octave from 0.5 to 2 kHz. The auditory threshold was lowest and held the same value from 2 to 8 kHz. The mean auditory threshold increased by 20 dB per octave from 8 to 32 kHz. Near threshold, click-evoked potentials test only a small part of the audible frequency range in dogs. Use of tone-evoked potentials may become a powerful tool in investigating dogs with possible partial hearing loss, including during the auditory system maturation period.
authors.affiliation: Anatomy and Embryology, Veterinary Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Free University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium. lcponce@ulb.ac.be
authors.forename: Luc C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Poncelet
authors.forename: Angélique G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Coppens
authors.forename: Paul F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Deltenre
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001299:Audiometry / Q000662:veterinary*; D004285:Dogs / Q000502:physiology*; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000662:veterinary*; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values