Reflexive heart rate change in response to auditory stimulation was studied in a series
of hearing-impaired children, in order to compare audiograms obtained by heart rate
response to threshold auditory stimuli with audiograms obtained by conventional behavioral
audiometry. In a group of 19 neurologically normal hearing-impaired children with
stable audiograms, correspondence of results by the two methods was good. In a group
of 16 neurologically impaired plus hearing-impaired children who presented with unstable
audiograms, there was a discrepancy in some cases between the two methods. It is suggested
that heart rate audiometry may be a useful diagnostic tool for the “difficult-to-test”
child.
Hearing-impairment - heart rate change - audiology - diagnosis of deafness in young
children
