Clinical normalization of auditory brainstem responses to tone bursts in normally hearing adults

Hearing is one of the most crucial senses for people to communicate. Deafness or loss of hearing may seriously impair quality of life. Additionally, socio-psychologic problems may appear. Objective responses is needed for the assesment of hearing if reliable results can not be achieved from behavioral responses. ?Auditory Brainstem Responces? (ABR) is the most common test battery used for objective evaluation of hearing both in clinical practice and literature. The purpose of this study; is to search for the compatibility of the normal thresholds of the pure tone audiometry and ABR to tone bursts for audiologic diagnosis of hearing loss and in oreder to decide the approach of amplification for the rehabilitation of hearing loss.In this study pure tone audiometric thresholds and thresholds of ABR to tone bursts at 4, 2, 1,0.5 kHz and 250 Hz frequencies of 60 ears of normally hearing 30 participants (15 female, 15 male) were compared.In this study, women and men between age of 18 to 55 were equally selected to search forgender differences. Gender did not revealed statistically significant difference.To assess the possible differences between the two ears, right and left ears were seperately included to the study. No significant difference was shown statistically.Thresholds of ABR to tone burst of all participants were higher than pure tone audimetric thresholds. The differences between the audiometric thresholds and thresholds of ABR to tone bursts at 4, 2, 1, 0.5 kHz and 250 Hz frequencies were 6.13, 11.13, 13.97, 14.00, 14.67 dB, respectively. The difference at frequencies of 4, 2, 1 kHz were found to be statistically significant.In conclusion, in normally hearing individuals, thresholds of ABR to tone bursts at 4, 2, 1 frequencies revealed accredited results to predict pure tone audiometric thresholds in contrast to 0.5 kHz and 250 Hz frequencies .