The approximation of audiometric thresholds by auditory brain stem responses.

Auditory brain stem response (ABR) thresholds for tone pip stimuli were compared with audiometric thresholds for 63 ears to assess the feasibility of deriving audiograms with ABR techniques. Correlations between the two measures were highly significant, indicating a high degree of accuracy in assessing degree and configuration of hearing loss with ABR. Patients with conductive losses showed a simple one-to-one relationship between ABR and audiometric thresholds, while patients with cochlear losses did not. Possibly this is due to the effects of abnormal temporal integration or poor frequency selectivity in this latter group.