Screening of high-risk infants using distortion product otoacoustic emissions

Otoacoustic emissions have been used as an objective and noninvasive test o f cochlear function. Due to its ease of use, accuracy, and test-retest reli ability, otoacoustic emissions testing is considered an excellent tool for evaluating difficult-to-test patients. This project involved screening infa nts at high risk of congenital hearing loss. These infants were selected fr om the Special Infant Clinic at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. The first part of this project was to establish a distortion product otoacousti c emissions (DPOAEs) "norm" as the reference for this group of patients. A prospective study was then conducted to compare DPOAE and auditory brainste m response (ABR) as screening tools for this group of patients. Auditory br ainstem response has been the gold standard for evaluating the hearing stat us of these infants. We will also present our experience in testing over 50 patients at high risk of congenital hearing loss using DPOAEs.