[Otoacoustic emissions for newborn hearing screening].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the validity of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) in newborn hearing screening and to establish the feasible pass/fail criteria of screening. METHODS: One hundred and eight newborns (216 ears) were screened by TEOAE and DPOAE with Celesta 503 Cochlear Emission Analyzer. The outcome of OAE screening was compared with that of auditory brainstem response(ABR) test. RESULTS: When the criterion of passing TEOAE screening was based on the correlation coefficient of waveforms equal to or greater than 0.60 (r > or = 0.60), the co-positivity and co-negativity to the ABR results were 100% and 93.8% respectively. When the pass criterion of DPOAE was set as that the response levels were greater than the 5th percentile (P5) of the normal newborns in more than five out of eight frequencies, the co-positivity and co-negativity were 100% and 94.3% respectively. The outcome of TEOAE and DPOAE screening between r > or = 0.60 and P5 showed the best correlation, r = 0.6583 (n = 216, P = 0.0001). CONCLUSION: r > or = 0.60 and P5 were the feasible pass criteria of TEOAE and DPOAE for newborn hearing screening respectively. OAE proved to be an objective tool for rapid and effective test in universal newborn hearing screening.