Comparison of auditory steady state response (ASSR) & auditory brainstem response (ABR) hearing thresholds in young children.

Objective: Hearing loss (HL) with a local prevalence of 5.7%, is the commonest childhood disability, requiring Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) programs to reduce the disability burden. Knowing the degree, type and configuration of HL is prerequisite for appropriate amplification, with Automated Auditory Brainstem Responses (ABR) being commonly used for this purpose, however Auditory Steady State Response (ASSR) has been recently introduced in the region. This study was conducted to compare ABR to ASSR, as an early diagnostic tool in children under five years of age. Methodology: This cross-sectional comparative study was performed at the Auditory Verbal Institute of Audiology and Speech (AVIAS) clinics in Rawalpindi and Islamabad, from December 2016 to September 2017. It included thirty-two cases (n=32) who visited AVIAS clinics for hearing assessment and conformed to the investigative protocol using non probability convenient sampling technique, and subjected to both ABR and ASSR for comparative purposes. Correlations were calculated between the thresholds obtained by ABR and ASSR. Results: N=32 children (64 ears) with male female ratio of 2.2:1 and mean age of 33.50±17.73 months were tested with ABR and ASSR for hearing thresholds and correlation coefficient between 2KHz, 4KHz ASSR and average of both with ABR was calculated to be 0.92 and 0.90 and 0.94 respectively. Conclusion: ASSR provides additional frequency specific hearing threshold estimation compared to C-ABR, essentially required for proper setting of amplification devices.