title: Auditory impairment in infants with neonatal chronic lung disease is alleviated after term.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Very premature infants with neonatal chronic lung disease (CLD) have been reported to have major auditory impairment at term, and we examined the outcomes in 30 infants after term age.
  
  
  METHODS
  Brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) was recorded at a postconceptional age of 46-61 weeks in 13 CLD cases and 14 controls from China and 17 CLD cases and 22 controls from the UK.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The BAER threshold in the CLD infants was slightly higher. Clicks at the normal hearing level (60 dB) showed no significant differences between the cases and controls in the latencies of BAER waves I, III and V and the I-V interval. However, the CLD infants demonstrated marginal shortening in the I-III interval and a marginal increase in the III-V interval. The amplitudes of BAER waves in the CLD infants were all slightly smaller than the controls. At 70 and 40 dB normal hearing level, the BAER findings were similar to those obtained at 60 dB normal hearing level, with only small variations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There were minor BAER abnormalities in the CLD infants, suggesting minor auditory impairment. The auditory impairment previously detected at the term date was later alleviated.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatology, Children's Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Ze D
authors.initials: ZD
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002908:Chronic Disease; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D062071:Infant, Extremely Premature; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male
keywords: Auditory evoked potential; Auditory impairment; Chronic lung disease; Infant hearing loss; Very low birthweight