Assessment of hearing threshold in adults with hearing loss using an automated system of cortical auditory evoked potential detection

Publication date: Available online 29 April 2016
Source:Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology
Author(s): Alessandra Spada Durante, Margarita Bernal Wieselberg, Nayara Costa, Sheila Carvalho, Beatriz Pucci, Nicolly Gudayol, Kátia de Almeida
IntroductionThe use of hearing aids by individuals with hearing loss brings a better quality of life. Access to and benefit from these devices may be compromised in patients who present difficulties or limitations in traditional behavioral audiological evaluation, such as newborns and small children, individuals with auditory neuropathy spectrum, autism, and intellectual deficits, and in adults and the elderly with dementia. These populations (or individuals) are unable to undergo a behavioral assessment, and generate a growing demand for objective methods to assess hearing. Cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEP) have been used for decades to estimate hearing thresholds. Current technological advances have lead to the development of equipment that allows their clinical use, with features that enable greater accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity, and the possibility of automated detection, analysis, and recording of cortical responses.ObjectiveTo determine and correlate behavioral auditory thresholds with cortical auditory thresholds obtained from an automated response analysis technique.MethodsThe study included 52 adults, divided into two groups: 21 adults with moderate to severe hearing loss (study group); and 31 adults with normal hearing (control group). An automated system of detection, analysis, and recording of cortical responses (HEARLab^®) was used to record the behavioral and cortical thresholds. The subjects remained awake in an acoustically treated environment. Altogether, 150 tone bursts at 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000Hz were presented through insert earphones in descending-ascending intensity. The lowest level at which the subject detected the sound stimulus was defined as the behavioral (hearing) threshold (BT). The lowest level at which a cortical response was observed was defined as the cortical electrophysiological threshold (CET). These two responses were correlated using linear regression.ResultsThe cortical electrophysiological threshold was, on average, 7.8dB higher than the behavioral for the group with hearing loss and, on average, 14.5dB higher for the group without hearing loss for all studied frequencies.ConclusionThe cortical electrophysiological thresholds obtained with the use of an automated response detection system were highly correlated with behavioral thresholds in the group of individuals with hearing loss.



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