The audiological characteristics of infant auditory neuropathy patients without otoacoustic emission: A retrospective clinical study

Abstract

Objective: To explore the audiological characteristics of infant auditory neuropathy (AN) patients with cochlear microphonic (CM) recorded but no otoacoustic emission (OAE) response and clinically reduce the rate of missed diagnosis of AN. Design: Retrospective clinical study of medical data from 2003 to 2020. Setting: Otolaryngology head and neck surgery clinical hearing center. Participants: Eighteen infant AN patients with CM present and distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) absent in both ears were OAE absent group. Forty-four infant AN patients with CM and DPOAE present in both ears were OAE present group. Main outcome measures: Audiological characteristics. Results: 1. The age of onset in OAE absent group was 0.9 (0.02) years old, which was less than 1.11 (1.63) years old in OAE present group (P=0.041). 2. The CM threshold of OAE absent group was 80 (10) dB nHL, which was significantly higher (P<0.001) than OAE present group. CM amplitude were smaller (P<0.05), and CM duration were shorter (P<0.05) in OAE absent group. 3. The thresholds of auditory steady-state response (ASSR) at 0.5, 1, 2 and 4 kHz were 94 (10), 94 (10), 87 (20) and 81 (10) dB HL cg respectively in OAE absent group, which were higher than those in OAE present group (P<0.01). Conclusions: Infant AN patients with CM present and OAE absent showed earlier onset, worse hearing level and worse CM performance. The influencing factors and value of CM in AN patients still need to be explored in the future.