Overview of ABR and OAE Flashcards
Are electrophysiologic tests objective or subjective?
Objective, does not require patient response
What are some electrophysiologic tests used in audiology?
Immittance tests (tymps, reflexes, reflex decay)
OAEs
AERs (ABR)
Can someone fake electrophysiologic audiometry?
No
What are auditory evoked responses (AER)?
Neurons in the brain communicate via rapid electrical impulses that allow the brain to coordinate behavior, sensation, thoughts, and emotion
The CNS, even in the absence of sensory stimulation, generated spontaneous and random neuroelectric activity
Can be recorded using scalp electrodes
What do these spontaneous brain activities form the basis of?
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
Can we also record responses (using EEG) to certain neural activity in response to sensory stimuli?
Yes, this includes hearing
Where is AEP or AER activity?
Cochlea
Auditory nerve
CANS
Are EEG responses huge?
Yes
Do we need to extract evoked responses from the general EEG responses?
Yes
Requires significant amplification and other mechanisms
What does an ABR consist of?
A sequential series of 5-7 peaks (responses)
What are we looking at for ABRs?
The latency of the response from onset of the stimulus
In clinical practice, what peaks of the ABR do we focus on?
I to V in general
I, III, V in particular
Why do we not care about waves II and IV?
Because they are assumed to be there if the others are there
Can an ABR provide a close estimate of hearing thresholds for specific frequencies?
Yes
Is ABR a test of hearing sensitivity?
No, just an estimate
Rather, it is looking at neural synchrony
Can ABRs predict a conductive, sensory, or neural site of lesions?
Yes
Why it is used for newborn hearing screening
Is an ABR used as a screening tool for retrocochlear pathologies?
Yes
Tells you something is wrong, but doesn’t tell you specifics
What area is wave I associated with?
Distal 8th nerve in the cochlea
What area is wave III associated with?
Cochlear nucleus, trapezoid body, and superior olivary complex
What area is wave V associated with?
Lateral limniscus
What is the blood supply to the cochlea?
Labyrinthine artery (branch of AICA)
What is the blood supply of the brainstem?
Vertebrobasilar artery
What is the normative peak latency for wave I at 80 dB nHL?
1.5 ms
What is the normative peak latency for wave II?
2.6 ms
What is the normative peak latency for wave III?
3.7 ms
What is the normative peak latency for wave IV?
4.7 ms
What is the normative peak latency for wave V?
5.5 ms
What is the standard deviation for latency values for waves I, II, and III?
0.25 ms
What is the standard deviation for the latency values for waves IV and V?
0.5 ms
What is the interpeak value for I - III?
2.25 ms
What is the interpeak value for III - V?
2.0 ms
What is the interpeak value for I - V?
4.0 ms
What transducers are used for ABR?
Inserts
What types of stimulus are used for ABR?
Clicks
Chirp
Tone burst (short frequency specific signal)
Speech stimuli (/ba/, /da/)
What are the polarities of ABR?
Rarefaction (negative)
Condensation (positive)
Alternating (combined polarity)
What is alternating polarity?
Computer will run rarefaction and condensation itself and add the information together
What is the rate of the ABR stimulus presentation?
> 20/s
Odd numbers like 21.1 or 27.3
Why is there an odd number of presentations for ABR?
Reduces artifact
What rate of ABR is used for neurodiagnosis?
> 90/s
What intensity is used for ABR?
It is variable depending on what you’re looking for
could be from 10 to 90 dB
What type of stimulus gives the best ABR responses in a normal hearing listener?
Clicks at about 75 to 90 dB nHL
What does nHL mean?
Normal hearing level
Levels in dB relative to the subjective click threshold level for subjects with normal hearing
As intensity of the ABR decreases, what occurs in the wave?
As intensity decreases, all waves disappear except for V
Wave I disappears first
The latency of the wave (V) increases
The morphology of the wave will change (become less clear)