A comparison of CE-chirp stimulating latency and amplitude levels in high risk premature babies, whose corrected ages range from 0 to 6 months, with health newborns

Auditory brainstem responses (ABR) refer to electrical activity created by audio warning from cochlea to brain stem pathways. ABR's wave latency and amplitude vary depending on stimulator kinds, used parameters, sex and age along with maturation. Therefore, standards should be separately developed especially for adults, infants and children. The aim of this study is to obtain information about auditory neural maturation by comparing CE-Chirp stimulating latency and amplitude levels in high risk premature babies, whose corrected ages range from 0 to 6 months, with health newborns. For this purpose, a total of 70 infants admitted to Başkent University Department of Otorhinolaryngology are included in this study. 35 of these infants are high risk premature babies with corrected ages ranging from 0 to 6, having no hearing complaints and having a normal otoscopic examination and the remaining 35 are healthy newborns. In the present study Wave V. latency and amplitudes, which are occurred by means of CE-Chirp stimulus sent by 90, 70, 50, 40 and 20 dB intensity in 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz, are measured. In Wave V. values obtained from all infants, the maximum amplitude (0.58 µV) is detected in 90 dB intensity in 1000 Hz, whereas the minimum latency (3.73 msn) is detected in 90 dB in 2000 Hz. No significant difference between the Wave V latencies found in the evaluation based on the sex. As a result of the Wave V. latency and amplitude measurements obtained from the comparison of the high risk premature babies and healthy newborns, there was statistically significant difference in the latency measurements. Obtained values may be used as references for auditory neural maturation and to diagnose in the future studies.