Audiological findings in children with a congenital rubella syndrome.

This is a report of the hearing in 22 consecutive children seen in an audiology clinic because of intrauterine infection with rubella-virus. The diagnosis of congenital rubella may be difficult and sometimes impossible to make retrospectively. It is often a probability diagnosis made by a combination of laboratory tests and various deformities in the heart, the central nervous system, the eyes, and the inner ear. Audiometrically the findings are very much differentiated, and there is no typical configuration. The results reported in a scientific paper from USA mentioning a relatively good high-frequency hearing in some "profoundly deaf" patients have not been found by audiometry up till 20 kHz in a small group of severely hearing impaired rubella-children. But there is reason to suppose that some persons with a hereditary type of hearing impairment may have a relatively well preserved hearing in the high-frequency field.