64 neonates under intensive care have been tested by distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) and the auditory brain stem response (ABR) to investigate the value of DPOAE as a test for hearing impairment. The DPOAE test has been found to be practical and quick to perform. The proportion of NICU infants producing a recordable DPOAE is 83.6%, and the sensitivity and specificity to the ABR result is 92.4% and 92.2%, false positive is 7.8%, false negative is 7.6% respectively. These figures are high enough and the reduction in time compared to ABR is sufficient for the DPOAE to be considered as the primary screen, firm conclusions on the sensitivity of DPOAE to long term hearing impairment await the results from larger numbers of infants and further follow up data.
Deafness Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem