title: The relationship between electrical auditory brainstem responses and perceptual thresholds in Digisonic® SP cochlear implant users.
abstract: Determining the electrical stimulation levels is often a difficult and time-consuming task because they are normally determined behaviorally - a particular challenge when dealing with pediatric patients. The evoked stapedius reflex threshold and the evoked compound action potential have already been shown to provide reasonable estimates of the C- and T-levels, although these estimates tend to overestimate the C- and T-levels. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the evoked auditory brainstem response (eABR) can also be used to reliably estimate a patient's C- and T-levels. The correlation between eABR detection thresholds and behaviorally measured perceptual thresholds was statistically significant (r = 0.71; P < 0.001). In addition, eABR Wave-V amplitude increased with increasing stimulation level for the three loudness levels tested. These results show that the eABR detection threshold can be used to estimate a patient's T-levels. In addition, Wave-V amplitude could provide a method for estimating C-levels in the future. The eABR objective measure may provide a useful cochlear implant fitting method - particularly for pediatric patients.
authors.forename: Geoffrey
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Guenser
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Laudanski
authors.forename: Bertrand
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Phillipon
authors.forename: Bradford C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Backus
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bordure
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Romanet
authors.forename: Cécile
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Parietti-Winkler
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000328:Adult; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D019929:Cochlear Implantation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D003054:Cochlear Implants; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008144:Loudness Perception; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013198:Stapedius / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Cochlear implant; Loudness growth; T-level; eABR electrical perceptual threshold