TY - JOUR
T1 - Auditory brain-stem responses in hydrocephalic patients
AU - Kraus, Nina
AU - Özdamar, Özcan
AU - Heydemann, Peter T.
AU - Stein, Laszlo
AU - Reed, Nancy L.
PY - 1984/7
Y1 - 1984/7
N2 - Auditory brain-stem response (ABR) was measured in 40 patients (80 ears) with confirmed hydrocephalus. Eighty-eight percent of these patients showed some form of ABR abnormality. Responses indicative of brain-stem dysfunction consisted of prolonged I-V interwave latency (38%), reduced V/I amplitude ratio (33%), and abnormalities in wave-shape of components III (27%) and V (53%). In addition, 70% of the patients had elevated ABR thresholds; 45% had responses in excess of 20 dB HL and the remaining 25% had no ABR activity. The etiology of the hydrocephalus, head circumference and brain-stem symptoms were not associated with particular ABR abnormalities. Communicating hydrocephalus correlated significantly with both prolonged I-V conduction time and absence of ABR activity, compared with non-communicating hydrocephalus. Four of the 9 patients retested showed ABR improvement on follow-up; one patient showed deterioration. The results were compared to our prior studies of ABR in 60 post-meningitic patients and in 100 severely neurologically impaired institutionalized children in whom the incidence of intrinsic brain-stem abnormalities was one-third and two-thirds that of the hydrocephalic group, respectively. The results of this study suggest that ABR can be used to document clinically unsuspected brain-stem pathology that may accompany hydrocephalus. Auditory brain-stem dysfunction is likely to complicate the assessment of hearing sensitivity in hydrocephalic patients.
AB - Auditory brain-stem response (ABR) was measured in 40 patients (80 ears) with confirmed hydrocephalus. Eighty-eight percent of these patients showed some form of ABR abnormality. Responses indicative of brain-stem dysfunction consisted of prolonged I-V interwave latency (38%), reduced V/I amplitude ratio (33%), and abnormalities in wave-shape of components III (27%) and V (53%). In addition, 70% of the patients had elevated ABR thresholds; 45% had responses in excess of 20 dB HL and the remaining 25% had no ABR activity. The etiology of the hydrocephalus, head circumference and brain-stem symptoms were not associated with particular ABR abnormalities. Communicating hydrocephalus correlated significantly with both prolonged I-V conduction time and absence of ABR activity, compared with non-communicating hydrocephalus. Four of the 9 patients retested showed ABR improvement on follow-up; one patient showed deterioration. The results were compared to our prior studies of ABR in 60 post-meningitic patients and in 100 severely neurologically impaired institutionalized children in whom the incidence of intrinsic brain-stem abnormalities was one-third and two-thirds that of the hydrocephalic group, respectively. The results of this study suggest that ABR can be used to document clinically unsuspected brain-stem pathology that may accompany hydrocephalus. Auditory brain-stem dysfunction is likely to complicate the assessment of hearing sensitivity in hydrocephalic patients.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0021242212&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0021242212&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/0168-5597(84)90048-0
DO - 10.1016/0168-5597(84)90048-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 6203720
AN - SCOPUS:0021242212
SN - 0168-5597
VL - 59
SP - 310
EP - 317
JO - Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology - Evoked Potentials
JF - Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology - Evoked Potentials
IS - 4
ER -