Auditory evaluation of the microcephalic children with brain stem evoked response audiometry (BERA)
Das, P.; Bandyopadhyay, M.; Ghugare, B.W.; Ghate, J.; Singh, R.
Indian Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology 54(4): 376-380
2010
ISSN/ISBN: 0019-5499 PMID: 21675037 Document Number: 640502
Microcephaly implies a reduced occipito-frontal circumference (< 2 Standard Deviation of normal) and therefore a small brain size, which is usually associated with different neurodeficit. Intactness of the auditory pathway in microcephalic as well as normal children was assessed by Brain stem Evoked Response Audiometry (BERA) to locate the exact site of lesion resulting in the auditory impairment, so that appropriate early rehabilitative measures can be taken. The study revealed that absolute peak latency of wave V, inter peak latencies of III-V and I-V were significantly higher (P- value < 0.05 in each case) in microcephalics than the normal children. Auditory impairment in microcephaly is a common neurodeficit that can be authentically assessed by BERA. The hearing impairment in microcephalics is mostly due to insufficiency of central components of auditory pathway at the level of brainstem, function of peripheral structures being almost within normal limit.