Application of auditory brainstem response on diagnose of hearing injury induced by noise

  Objective   To discuss the merit of application of audito ry brainstem responses(ABR)on occupational noise induced hearingimpairment diagnose.

  Methods   The pure acoustic test and auditory brainstem responses test were respectively done on 108 patients with noise induced hearingimpairment who were perennially exposed tonoise(group one)and on as many as healthy ones(group two).

  Results   In the pure acoustic test of auditory threshold on two groups, the difference of auditory threshold had significance in the all frequency threshold(in lowerfrequency threshold, P < 0.05, while in high frequency threshold, P < 0.01), nevertheless, auditory thresho ld descendingin high threshold was dominant; threshold level in ABRtest was coincident with the threshold in pure acoustic testin 172 of 216 ears(79.63%)of 108 patients(group one), the difference had significance comparing to the healthy ones(group two)(P < 0.01), high frequency threshold level in pure sound was higherthan threshold in ABRin 28 ears(12.96%)(the difference was above 15 db), high frequency threshold level in pure sound was lowerthan threshold in ABRin 16 ears(7.41%); positive relativity was verified between high frequency threshold and threshold in pure sound(r=0.57, P < 0.01), while lowerfrequency threshod and threshold in pure sound were no relative.

  Conclusion   Noise can cause hearingimpairment, and the auditory brainstem responses in the patients with nois-einduced hearingimpairmentis helpful fordiagnose.