Auditory brain stem responses to tone bursts and notch noise masked tone bursts in estimating hearing levels in children

Objective To compare thresholds of auditory brain stem responses(ABR) evoked by tone bursts,and tone bursts ipsilaterally masked by notched noise to thresholds of click-evoked ABR and 40 Hz AERP in children with hearing loss and to determine their values in hearing assessment among pediatric populations.Methods Click-evoked ABRs(c-ABR),ABRs to tone bursts(tb-ABR) and to tone bursts ipsilaterally masked by notched noise of different intensities(amtb-ABR and bmtb-ABR),and 40Hz AERPs were tested using a SmartEP,system in 29 children(53 ears),Of the subjects,18 were male and 11 were female.Results 1) tb-ABR,amtb-ABR and bmtb-ABR thresholds were similar and highly correlated with those of c-ABR at 2 kHz and 4 kHz.2) These thresholds were similar and highly correlated with those of 40Hz AERPs at 0.5,1,2 and 4 kHz.Conclusion ABRs to tone burst and tone burst ipsilaterally masked by notched noise can be used as alternative methods in predicting hearing levels in children.