Previous studies have found that Auditory Steady State Response (ASSR) has large variability in predicting hearing thresholds. However, not many studies have reported on its repeatability. This study aimed to determine the repeatability of ASSR in evaluating hearing thresholds in elderly with sensorineural hearing impairment. A total of 15 subjects aged 55 to 75 years old were involved in this study. Hearing thresholds were determined using pure tone audiometry (PTA) and ASSR at frequencies 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 kHz. ASSR were repeated at frequencies 0.5 and 1 kHz. Overall, hearing thresholds obtained with ASSR were higher than PTA. One-way ANOVA showed the difference between thresholds of PTA and ASSR were not significant at all frequencies. There is significant correlation between the PTA and ASSR thresholds at 0.5 kHz (r = 0.77, p < 0.05), 1 kHz (r = 0.45, p < 0.05), 2 kHz (r = 0.58, p < 0.05) and 4 kHz (r = 0.73, p < 0.05). Paired t-test showed no significant difference between the first ASSR test and repeated ASSR at 0.5 kHz (t = 2.09, p > 0.05) and 1 kHz (t = 0.436, p > 0.05). Pearson corelation showed moderate corelation between the two ASSR measurements at 0.5 kHz (r = 0.68, p < 0.001) and 1 kHz (r = 0.60, p < 0.001). The outcome of this study suggests that ASSR hearing threshold is not significantly different if test is repeated and ASSR can be recommended as an alternative to PTA in determining hearing threshold in elderly with sensorineural hearing impairment.

Background and Objectives: The cortical auditory evoked potential (CAEP) is a useful objective test for diagnosing hearing loss and auditory disorders. Prior to its clinical applications in the pediatric population, the possible influences of fundamental variables on the CAEP should be studied. The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of age and type of stimulus on the CAEP waveforms. Subjects and Methods: Thirty-five healthy Malaysian children aged 4 to 12 years participated in this repeated-measures study. The CAEP waveforms were recorded from each child using a 1 kHz tone burst and the speech syllable /ba/. Latencies and amplitudes of P1, N1, and P2 peaks were analyzed accordingly. Results: Significant negative correlations were found between age and speech-evoked CAEP latency for each peak (p< 0.05). However, no significant correlations were found between age and tone-evoked CAEP amplitudes and latencies (p>0.05). The speech syllable /ba/ produced a higher mean P1 amplitude than the 1 kHz tone burst (p=0.001). Conclusions The CAEP latencies recorded with the speech syllable became shorter with age. While both tone-burst and speech stimuli were appropriate for recording the CAEP, significantly bigger amplitudes were found in speech-evoked CAEP. The preliminary normative CAEP data provided in the present study may be beneficial for clinical and research applications in Malaysian children.