Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Jun;25(72):127-34.

The Relationship between the Behavioral Hearing Thresholds and Maximum Bilirubin Levels at Birth in Children with a History of Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia

Rasool Panahi  1 , Zahra Jafari, Abdoreza Sheibanizade, Masoud Salehi, Abdoreza Esteghamati, Sara Hasani
Affiliations

The Relationship between the Behavioral Hearing Thresholds and Maximum Bilirubin Levels at Birth in Children with a History of Neonatal Hyperbilirubinemia

Rasool Panahi et al. Iran J Otorhinolaryngol. 2013 Jun.

Abstract

Introduction: Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia is one of the most important factors affecting the auditory system and can cause sensorineural hearing loss. This study investigated the relationship between behavioral hearing thresholds in children with a history of jaundice and the maximum level of bilirubin concentration in the blood.

Materials and methods: This study was performed on 18 children with a mean age of 5.6 years and with a history of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia. Behavioral hearing thresholds, transient evoked emissions and brainstem evoked responses were evaluated in all children.

Results: Six children (33.3%) had normal hearing thresholds and the remaining (66.7%) had some degree of hearing loss. There was no significant relationship (r=-0.28, P=0.09) between the mean total bilirubin levels and behavioral hearing thresholds in all samples. A transient evoked emission was seen only in children with normal hearing thresholds however in eight cases brainstem evoked responses had not detected.

Conclusion: Increased blood levels of bilirubin at the neonatal period were potentially one of the causes of hearing loss. There was a lack of a direct relationship between neonatal bilirubin levels and the average hearing thresholds which emphasizes on the necessity of monitoring the various amounts of bilirubin levels.

Keywords: Behavioral; Hearing loss; Hearing threshold; Hyperbilirubinemia; Neonatal.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
Distribution of Average Hearing Thresholds According to the Level of Bilirubin
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Northern JL, Downs MP. Hearing in children. 5th ed. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2002.
    1. Hille E, Van Straaten H, Verkerk PH. Prevalence and independent risk factors for hearing loss in NICU infants. Acta paediatrica. 2007;96(8):1155–8. - PubMed
    1. Shapiro SM. Bilirubin toxicity in the developing nervous system. Pediatric Neurology. 2003;29(5):410–21. - PubMed
    1. Jafari Z, Malayeri S, Zarandi MM. [The effect of neonatal hyperbilirubinemia on the auditory system] Audiology. 2008;16(2):30–7.
    1. Wennberg RP, Ahlfors CE, Bhutani VK, Johnson LH, Shapiro SM. Toward understanding kernicterus: a challenge to improve the management of jaundiced newborns. Pediatrics. 2006;117(2):474–85. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources