Auditory steady-state responses for children with severe to profound hearing loss.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the clinical usefulness of the dichotic single-frequency auditory steady-state response (ASSR) for estimation of behavioral thresholds in children with severe to profound congenital sensorineural hearing loss. DESIGN A comparative experimental research design was selected to compare behavioral and ASSR thresholds for the sample. Behavioral pure-tone audiometry served as the criterion standard. SETTING Hearing Clinic, Department of Communication Pathology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa. PATIENTS A referred sample of 10 patients (20 ears), 5 girls and 5 boys aged 10 to 15 years (mean age, 13 years 4 months), with severe to profound sensorineural hearing impairment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES The difference, and correlation, between 160 pure-tone behavioral and ASSR thresholds at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz. RESULTS Mean differences between ASSR and behavioral thresholds were 6 dB for 0.5 kHz and 4 dB for 1, 2, and 4 kHz, with standard deviations varying between 8 and 12 dB. No significant differences (P<.05) were observed between ASSR and behavioral thresholds, except at 0.5 kHz, and Pearson correlation coefficients varied between 0.58 and 0.74 across the evaluated frequencies, with best correlation at 1 kHz and worst at 0.5 kHz. CONCLUSIONS The ASSR thresholds provided reliable estimations of behavioral thresholds for children with severe to profound hearing loss and indicated an increased sensitivity for more profound hearing loss.