Korean J Otolaryngol-Head Neck Surg.  2006 Jun;49(6):593-597.

The Correlation between Pure Tone Audiometry and Auditory Steady State Response according to the Hearing Level and Frequency

• Lee HS
• Ahn JH
• Kim YJ
• Lee KS
• Yoon TH
• Chung JW

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to assess the correlation between hearing thresholds in pure tone audiometry (PTA) and auditory steady state response (ASSR) according to the hearing level and frequency.
SUBJECTS AND METHOD
A total of 105 subjects (178 ears, 64 male and 41 female) were enrolled in this study. None of the subjects had middle ear diseases and PTA and ASSR were performed on the same day for each subject. Ninety-eight subjects (168 ears) were finally enrolled in the analysis of this study.
RESULTS
The correlation coefficient (r) of mean hearing threshold between PTA and ASSR was 0.96 and the mean hearing threshold of PTA can be calculated from the mean hearing threshold of ASSR (PTA=1.05 x ASSR-7.6). When analyzed according to frequency, the correlation coefficients were 0.94, 0.95, 0.94, and 0.92 for 500, 1,000, 2,000, and 4,000 Hz panels, respectively.
CONCLUSION
This study showed that ASSR and PTA had very close correlation and ASSR could be used to estimate hearing thresholds with reliable accuracy in various cases where subjective hearing measurement including PTA could not be performed.

Keyword

Pure tone audiometry; Auditory brainstem response; Auditory threshold; Correlation

MeSH Terms

Audiometry*
Auditory Threshold
Ear
Ear, Middle
Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem
Hearing*
Humans
Male