A controlled comparison of auditory steady-state responses and pure-tone audiometry in patients with hearing loss

Abstract

We performed a prospective interventional study to evaluate correlations between hearing thresholds determined by pure-tone audiometry (PTA) and auditory steady-state response (ASSR) testing in two types of patients with hearing loss and a control group of persons with normal hearing. The study was conducted on 240 ears-80 ears with conductive hearing loss, 80 ears with sensorineural hearing loss, and 80 normal-hearing ears. We found that mean threshold differences between PTA results and ASSR testing at different frequencies did not exceed 15 dB in any group. Using Pearson correlation coefficient calculations, we determined that the two responses correlated better in patients with sensorineural hearing loss than in those with conductive hearing loss. We conclude that measuring ASSRs can be an excellent complement to other diagnostic methods in determining hearing thresholds.