Establishment of Age-Specific Normative Data for Auditory Brainstem Response Wave Measurement and its Application for Hearing Loss Diagnosis in a Tertiary Government Hospital
Abstract
Background: Hearing loss translates to socioeconomic burden. The Philippine Universal Newborn Hearing Screening and Intervention Act aimed to address this by facilitating diagnosis through Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) test. Literature provides normative values for ABR. However, there are inter-laboratory and subject variabilities. These differences create obstacles to accurately evaluate hearing status. Hence, it is vital to establish ABR normative data among infants since they are the usual patients catered to in Southern Philippines Medical Center.
Objectives: To create normative ABR values for infants.
Design: Retrospective, cross-sectional
Setting: Government tertiary hospital
Participants: Healthy normal-hearing infants who underwent ABR tests from January 2021 to December 2022
Main Outcome Measures: Normative ABR values
Main Results: Twelve patients satisfied the criteria. All test parameters (hearing threshold, interaural difference, and wave V/I amplitude ratio) indicate that all subjects qualify as bases for the establishment of normative values. The absolute latency (AL) of waves I, III, and V are 1.66 ± 0.42, 4.45 ± 0.32, and 6.65 ± 0.26 msec, respectively. In addition, the interpeak latency (IPL) of waves I-III, III-V, and I-V were as follows: 2.80 ± 0.2, 2.19 ± 0.21, and 4.99 ± 0.29 msec, respectively. These values have no significant difference from published values for infants but are statistically different in adult studies except for wave I (AL). Generally, the established infant normative values are significantly prolonged compared to published adult values.
Conclusion: Values established in this study can be used in our center’s clinical practice and those centers that use the same equipment and similar parameters. The establishment of these specific reference values contributes to better audiological diagnosis.
Copyright (c) 2026 Ed Levi Camarillo
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