233
Views
2
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Research Article

An investigation into the clinical utility of ipsilateral/ contralateral asymmetries in bone-conduction auditory steady-state responses

&
Pages 604-612 | Received 04 Oct 2013, Accepted 14 Mar 2014, Published online: 06 May 2014
 

Abstract

Objective: To determine whether ipsilateral/contralateral asymmetries in the bone-conduction (BC) ASSR are robust enough in infants to be used clinically to isolate the test ear. Design: Retrospective investigation of three two-channel BC ASSR datasets. Subjects: Forty-eight adults (mean age 26.7 years), 49 infants (mean age 29.6 weeks). Methods: BC ASSR stimuli were presented as amplitude/frequency modulated sinusoidal tones with carrier frequencies of 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz (−10 to 45 dB HL). Results: Infants showed greater differences in ipsilateral/contralateral mean amplitudes and phase delays for all experimental conditions compared to adults. Ninety percent of infants had ipsilateral/contralateral asymmetries at 500 and 4000 Hz (20–35 dB HL) using an “amplitude or phase delay” criterion, and at 4000 Hz (20–25 dB HL) using an “amplitude and phase delay” criterion. Conclusions: As ipsilateral/contralateral asymmetries are not consistently present for 1000- and 2000-Hz BC ASSRs in infants, clinical masking would be needed at these frequencies to isolate the test ear. For 500- and 4000-Hz BC ASSRs, the accuracy of using these asymmetries requires clinical confirmation in a group of infants with hearing loss.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a Discovery Grant to Dr. Susan Small from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Portions of this paper were presented at the XXIII Biennial Symposium of the International Evoked Response Audiometry Study Group (New Orleans, USA, June 9–13, 2013).

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.