Correlation among thresholds of evoked otoacoustic emissions,behavioral responses and auditory brainstem responses

In 35 adult human subjects(58 ears)thresholds of rarefactlon clickevoked otoacoustic emission(EOAE),behavioral response(BR)and auditorybrainstem response(ABR)were measured and compared,and correlationcoefficients(r)among them calculated.The results revealed that 86％ of themeasured thresholds were in the range from 10 to 45 dB(nHL)for EOAE,88％ from 10 to 25 dB for BR and 88％ from 10 to 35 for ABR.The correlationcoefficients for the whole threshold sample were 0.415(p<0.002)for EOAE vs.BR,0.501(p<0.001)for EOAE vs.ABR and 0.702(p<0.001)for ABR vs.BR,all indicating highly significant correlation.However,for those ears whoseBR,ABR or EOAE thresholds were elevated,equaling to or exceeding 25 dB,there is no significant correlation between thresholds of EOAE and BR and ofEOAE and ABR(r range:0.176-0.310,p>0.05).In contrast,significantcorrelation between BR and ABR thresholds in the same conditions still re-mained(r:0.533-0.720,p<0.05).The experimental results indicate that thecorrelation between EOAE and hea

Correlation among thresholds of evoked otoacoustic emissions, behavioral responses and auditory brainstem responses

In 35 adult human subjects (58 ears) thresholds of rarefaction click evoked otoacoustic emission (EOAE), behavioral response (BR) and auditory brainstem response (ABR) were measured and compared, and correlation coefficients (r) among them calculated. The results revealed that 86 % of the measured thresholds were in the range from 10 to 45 dB (nHL) for EOAE, 88 % from 10 to 25 dB for BR and 88 % from 10 to 35 for ABR. The correlation coefficients for the whole threshold sample were 0.415 (p< 0.002) for EOAE vs. BR, 0.501 (p< 0.001) for EOAE vs. ABR and 0.702 (p< 0.001) for ABR vs. BR, all indicating highly significant correlation. However, for those ears whose BR, ABR or EOAE thresholds were elevated, equaling to or exceeding 25 dB, there is no significant correlation between thresholds of EOAE and BR and of EOAE and ABR (r range: 0.176-0.310, p>0.05). In contrast, significant correlation between BR and ABR thresholds in the same conditions still remained (r: 0.533-0.720, p<0.05). The experimental results indicate that the correlation between EOAE and hearing thresholds is significant only for subjects with normal or slightly lost hearing. EOAE is valuable in audiometry only as an accessory tool.