BACKGROUND: auditory steady-state response (ASSR) is indicated as a promising technique in the assessment of the hearing status of children. AIM: to investigate the level of agreement between the results of the ASSR and the visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) in a group of children, thus examining the clinical applicability of this technique in hearing assessment of children. METHOD: participants were 14 children with ages between 4 and 36 months (mean 16 months) with the diagnosis of cochlear hearing loss. The ASSR was recorded in the frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2 and 4kHz for multiple simultaneous stimulation and the results were compared with the visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA). RESULTS: the intraclass correlation coefficients between ASSR and VRA were 0.90, 0.93, 0.93 and 0.89 respectively for the frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2 and 4kHz, indicating a strong correlation between the techniques. CONCLUSION: the ASSR can provide accurate information to support the selection of hearing aids for children when it is not possible to perform the VRA.
BACKGROUND: auditory steady-state response (ASSR) is indicated as a promising technique in the assessment of the hearing status of children. AIM: to investigate the level of agreement between the results of the ASSR and the visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA) in a group of children, thus examining the clinical applicability of this technique in hearing assessment of children. METHOD:participants were 14 children with ages between 4 and 36 months (mean 16 months) with the diagnosis of cochlear hearing loss. The ASSR was recorded in the frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2 and 4kHz for multiple simultaneous stimulation and the results were compared with the visual reinforcement audiometry (VRA). RESULTS: the intraclass correlation coefficients between ASSR and VRA were 0.90, 0.93, 0.93 and 0.89 respectively for the frequencies of 0.5, 1, 2 and 4kHz, indicating a strong correlation between the techniques. CONCLUSION: the ASSR can provide accurate information to support the selection of hearing aids for children when it is not possible to perform the VRA.