The Application And Value Of ASSR In The Diagnosis Of Sudden Deafness

Objective To investigate the application and value of ASSR in the diagnosis of sudden deafness, the correlations of pure tone audiometry, auditory brainstem responses and ASSR in different hearing loss levels , and the effects of sex on the thresholds of ASSR .Method Thirty patients who were diagnosed as sudden deafness according to the diagnosis criteria of the Chinese Society of Otorhinolaryngology of the Chinese Medical Association, were tested by pure tone audiometry, ASSR and Click ABR, when they were quiet or sleeping naturally, then the statistic significances of the outcomes were analyzed.Result The correlation coefficients between ASSR and pure-tone audiometry were 0.827,0.897,0.903,0.914,at 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 KHz,respectively in the modest- moderately severe group. In the severe and profound group, they were 0.868,0.932,0.954,0.922 and 0.753,0.835,0.872,0.851 respectively. At 0.5KHz,the gap was 10～20dB,while in other carrier frequencies, the gap was 5～15dB. The correlations were significant except at 0.5 KHz. Comparing the ClickABR threshold with the average threshold of ASSR at 2.0 and 4.0 KHz, the r values were 0.925, 0.909 and 0.898 in the modest- moderately severe, severe and profound groups, respectively. The correlations were significant. There was no significant difference in gender except at 4.0 KHz (p=0.014). Conclusion ASSR had good frequency-specific, with high stimulus intensity, and could obtain 8 frequencies at both ears simultaneously. It is a promising objectiveaudiometry. The correlation between pure tone audiometry, auditory brainstem responses and ASSR was significant. ASSR has its value in the diagnosis of sudden deafness and evaluation of the degree of deafness. The effects of sex need to be furtherstudied.