Auditory brainstem responses (ABR) in normal hearing adult subjects with Down's syndrome.
BACKGROUND
Auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) have been previously investigated in subjects with Down's syndrome (DS), but the published data are generally from children with hearing loss. The aim of this study was to evaluate the hearing pathway in normal hearing adult DS patients.


METHODS
We used ABRs to analyze absolute and interpeak latencies in 19 adult DS patients aged 18-45 years whose pure tone audiometry (PTA) test results indicated thresholds within normal limits, and 19 normal controls.


RESULTS
The DS sample showed statistically significant gender-related differences in interpeak interval III-V (p = 0.015). The latencies of waves III and V, and interpeak intervals III-V and I-V, were significantly shortened in the DS patients than in the controls.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings may be due to the smaller brain sizes and simpler afferent auditory pathways of DS subjects.
Forti
Stella
S
Audiology Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Mangiagalli e Regina Elena, Milan, Italy.
Amadeo
Chiara
C
Fagnani
Enrico
E
Filipponi
Eliana
E
Pignataro
Lorenzo
L
Cesarani
Antonio
A
Ambrosetti
Umberto
U
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001299:Audiometry; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D055815:Young Adult