Comparison of auditory brain stem response latency norms for premature infants.

Two investigations were conducted in an attempt to devise an improved set of auditory brain stem response (ABR) latency norms for premature infants. The first study utilized the responses of 130 infants to develop conventional ABR wave V latency norms for different conceptual ages. In addition, three sets of alternative norms were devised which utilized both waves III and V and used ABR interwave intervals as measures of brain stem maturation. A second study examined how well each of the four sets of latency norms predicted the ABR latencies of an additional group of 131 normal-hearing infants. The results of this second study demonstrated that norms utilizing wave III and the I-III interwave interval as an indicator of brain stem maturation were more sensitive than conventional norms, which provide expected wave V latencies for different conceptual ages.