Diagnostic accuracy of CE Chirp

Abstract

The auditory brainstem response is an evoked potential that can be clinically used to estimate hearing sensitivity and to identify auditory nervous system pathology. Recently, there has been an increase in the implementation of the CE-Chirp stimulus in AABR equipment for neonatal hearing screening. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the LS CE-Chirp-evoked ABR compared to the traditionally used click-evoked ABR for the identification of different degrees and configurations of sensorineural (SNHL) hearing loss.

An exploratory within-subject comparative research design was used. 49 ears with mild to moderate sensorineural hearing loss were assessed. Participants were assessed in a single session. Audiometric pure tone thresholds were obtained at 125-8000 Hz and ABR thresholds were measured using the click and LS CE-Chirp stimuli respectively. Click- and LS CE-Chirp-evoked thresholds were compared with each other and with behavioural pure tone average (PTA), high frequency average (HFA) and low frequency average (LFA). Diagnostic accuracy of the two ABR stimuli was also compared by using ROC curves.

Differences between click- and LS CE Chirp-evoked ABR, and behavioural thresholds were not statistically significant (p>0.05). The strongest significant correlation for ABR using clicks to behavioural thresholds was found at 2000 and 4000 Hz, whereas, the strongest correlation for LS CE-Chirp ABRs to behavioural thresholds was found at 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz (r>0.7, p<0.001). A very strong, positive correlation was found between both click (r=0.805) and LS CE-Chirp (r=0.825) and the behavioural PTA (p<0.001). The mean differences for LS CE-Chirp were smaller than those of the click for PTA and low frequency range. ROC curves indicated better AUC values for the LS CE-Chirp at LFA and HFA compared to the click, also showing a narrower confidence interval and less variance than the click.

The predictive accuracy of the LS CE-Chirp-evoked ABR was slightly better than that of the click with reference to PTA, HFA and LFA thresholds; furthermore, it is less variable and more accurate than the click-evoked ABR with reference to HFA. Thus, the LS CE-Chirp is an accurate stimulus for estimation of hearing sensitivity using ABR when compared to the gold standard click stimulus for the purpose of identification of different configurations of SNHL.