Using click-evoked auditory brainstem response thresholds in infants to estimate the corresponding pure-tone audiometry thresholds in children referred from UNHS.

Objective: To examine whether behavioral pure-tone audiometry (PTA) thresholds in children can be accurately estimated from the corresponding infants' click-evoked auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds through a retrospective review of data from a universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) program in Taiwan.

Method: According to medical records from Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei Hospital District, 45,450 newborns received hearing screening during January 1999-December 2011. Among these newborns, 104 (82, both ears; 22, one ear; total, 186 ears) received regular follow-up and were recruited as subjects. The relationship between infant click-evoked ABR thresholds and the corresponding child PTA thresholds was determined through Pearson correlation coefficient and linear regression analyses.

Results: The correlation coefficient between click-evoked ABR thresholds and behavioral PTA thresholds at the average of frequencies of 1-4 and 2-4 kHz was 0.76 and 0.76, respectively. Linear regression analysis showed that behavioral audiometry thresholds at the average of frequencies of 1-4 and 2-4 kHz were accurately estimated from click-evoked ABR thresholds in 57% and 58% children, respectively.

Conclusion: Click-evoked ABR testing is a reliable tool to cautiously estimate behavioral PTA thresholds at the average of frequencies of 1-4 and 2-4 kHz. For accurately performing hearing aid fitting and auditory rehabilitation in congenitally deaf infants, a combination of frequency-specific tone-burst ABR and click-evoked ABR should be used.