OBJECTIVES: Research focusing on changes in the clinical practice of audiological diagnosis has become increasingly necessary, particularly in pediatric audiology. The pursuit of accurate and reliable examinations has intensified given the importance of early detection and intervention in cases of childhood hearing loss. Thus, this study aims to investigate the correlation between electrophysiological auditory thresholds, as obtained through frequency-specific auditory brainstem responses with two distinct chirp stimuli (narrow-band CE-Chirp Level Specific and narrow-band iChirp), in children with hearing impairments. In addition, this research set out to correlate these thresholds with behavioral responses while simultaneously comparing the examination durations relative to the type of stimuli and the degree of hearing loss.
DESIGN: A cohort of 20 children (aged 6 months to 12 years) with varying degrees of hearing impairment (ranging from mild to profound) were recruited. The participants underwent bilateral measurement of their electrophysiological thresholds via auditory brainstem responses across different frequencies (500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz), and the timeframe for determining these thresholds was carefully recorded. Subsequently, behavioral thresholds were ascertained using pure-tone audiometry or visual reinforcement audiometry based on the child's age. The data collected was subsequently analyzed using Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients. To compare examination times, the Student t test and the Kruskal-Wallis test were used.
RESULTS: There was a pronounced correlation between the thresholds obtained through both narrow-band chirp stimuli. Moreover, a substantial correlation was found between electrophysiological and behavioral thresholds at 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz, especially when compared with pure-tone audiometry. The mean differences between the electrophysiological and behavioral thresholds were below 6 dB nHL, and the exam duration was relatively consistent across both devices, averaging 47.63 (±19.41) min for the narrow-band CE-Chirp Level Specific and 52.42 (±26) min for the narrow-band iChirp. Notably, variations in exam duration did not relate to varying degrees of hearing loss when using the narrow-band CE-Chirp Level Specific. Nevertheless, the narrow-band iChirp indicated significantly shorter durations in instances of profound degree measurements, demonstrating a statistically significant difference.
CONCLUSIONS: The narrow-band CE-Chirp Level Specific and narrow-band iChirp stimuli provided similar estimates of electrophysiological auditory thresholds in children with hearing impairments, giving accurate estimations of behavioral thresholds. The time it took to complete the assessment is comparable between both stimuli. For the narrow-band iChirp, the degree of hearing loss was shown to impact the testing time, and children with profound hearing loss underwent faster exams. Ultimately, this study exhibits significant clinical implications as it reveals that the narrow-band CE-Chirp Level Specific and narrow-band iChirp stimuli could be remarkably promising for clinically exploring electrophysiological thresholds in children with hearing impairments.