Swept-Tone Stimulus-Frequency Otoacoustic Emissions in Human Newborns.
Carolina Abdala, Ping Luo, Yeini Guardia
PMID 31789131WHAT IT FOUND
Swept-tone SFOAEs were recorded in 83% of newborn ears.
The emission pattern looked adult-like. Poor probe fit likely caused many absent responses.
Key findings
01SFOAEs were measurable in 83% of newborn ears at 40 dB SPL when an ear had responses in at least 5 of 10 center frequencies.
02Newborn SFOAE spectra were broadly similar to adult spectra, and nearly 40% of peaks fell in the 4 to 8 kHz octave.
03Absent SFOAEs were associated with probe leakage and higher ear-canal energy reflectance in newborns who had passed the hospital hearing screen.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study analyzed 22 newborns after exclusions, so the sample was small. The ER-10X probe was difficult to fit in newborn ears and often shifted, so absent emissions may reflect probe problems rather than cochlear status. The definition of a present SFOAE was arbitrary, and a different definition raised prevalence to 90%. All newborns had passed the hospital hearing screen, so the paper does not show how swept-tone SFOAEs perform in infants with hearing loss. Ear-canal size and middle-ear immaturity can affect measured level and delay, so newborn-adult differences are not purely cochlear. Only seven newborns were tested at 20 dB SPL, so low-level SFOAE findings are limited. The adults were used as a normative referent only, not as a clinical comparison group.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not include an author conflict-of-interest or funding declaration. The publication types note research support from N.I.H., Extramural.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat swept-tone SFOAEs as a ready clinical hearing test for newborns. The study measured healthy newborns who had passed screening, and absent emissions were associated with probe leakage and ear-canal reflectance, so clinical utility for hearing loss was not shown.