RAPID AUDIOGRAM DETERMINATION USING EVOKED RESPONSES

ALTHOUGH HEARING EVALUATION USING THE AUDITORY BRAINSTEM RESPONSE (ABR) HAS BECOME A ROUTINE TE0ST, CURRENT CLINICAL PROCEDURES EMPLOYING CLICK STIUMLI WITH ABR YIELD ONLY A ROUGH ESTIMATE OF HEARING. FREQUENCY SPECIFIC PROCEDURES ARE TOO LENGTHY TO BE APPLIED TO NEWBORN AND INFANT PPPULATIONS WHO ARE IN MOST NEED OF DETAILED HEARING EVALUATION. IN ORDER TO OBTAIN AN ABR AUDIOGRAM (A FOUR-FREQUENCY TEST OF THRESHOLD), FAST ABR ACQUISITION SYSTEMS THAT ARE EQUIPPED WITH AUTOMATED GENERATION OF FREQUENCY SPECIFIC STIMULI AND RAPID DETECTION OF THRESHOLD RESPONSE SHOULD BE DEVISED. FOR MAXIMUM EFFECTIVENESS, THE DEVICE SHOULD PROVIDE CLINICIANS WITH HIGH QUALITY RECORDINGS SIMILAR TO THOSE OBTAINED IN STANDARD CLINICAL PRACTICE USING TIME-CONSUMING PROCEDURES. WE WILL DEVELOP PROCESSING METHODS WHICH WILL SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCE ABR ACQUISITIONN TIME AND THE EFFECTS OF ARTIFACTS WHILE YIELDING OBJECTIVE QUANTITATIVE MEASURES OF RESPONSE PRESENCE (SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO ESTIMATES) AND LATENCY-INTENSITY FUNCTIONS FOR THE FREQUENCIES TESTED. THESE METHODS WILL RESULT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN AUTOMATED EP SYSTEM WHICH WILL ENABLE US TO OBTAIN A CLINICALLY USABLE ABR AUDIOGRAM IN A TIME FRAME SUITABLE FOR USE AS A MASS SCREENING AND TESTING DEVICE.