Short-term test-retest reliability of aided late latency auditory evoked potentials in adult cochlear implant recipients

Abstract

Background Late latency auditory evoked potentials (LLAEPs) provide objective evidence of an individual’s central auditory processing abilities. Electrically evoked cortical auditory evoked potentials (eCAEPs) and aided P300s are LLAEPs that are capable of providing an objective measure of aided speech perception and auditory processing abilities in cochlear implant (CI) recipients. Aim To determine the short-term test-retest reliability of aided LLAEPs in adult CI recipients. Design An explorative, within-subject repeated measures research design was employed. Study sample The study sample included twelve postlingually deafened, unilaterally implanted adult CI recipients with at least nine months of CI experience. Method eCAEPs representing basal, medial and apical cochlear regions and aided P300s were recorded in the implanted ears of each participant. Measurements were repeated seven days after the initial assessment. Results Lower coefficient of variation values were found for measures of latency compared to amplitude for both aided LLAEP measurements. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) values for eCAEP latencies and amplitudes ranged from moderate to excellent when averaged across cochlear regions in terms of consistency and agreement. Moderate and poor consistency and agreement was seen for the aided P300 absolute peak latency and amplitudes respectively. Conclusion There were no significant differences between test and retest for all aided P300 and eCAEP latencies and amplitudes when eCAEP responses were averaged across electrodes. However, confidence intervals indicated very broad measures of consistency and agreement ranging from moderate to excellent for eCAEPs and moderate for aided P300 latencies. Aided P300 amplitudes demonstrated poor test-retest reliability.