Audiological Characteristics and Duration of the Disorder in Individuals with Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD) – A Retrospective Study

Abstract

The study aimed to determine the relation between audiological characteristics seen in individuals with Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD) with the duration of the condition. Additionally, the study aimed to compare the demographic data with that of earlier reported studies. Design and study sample: The retrospective study was carried out by reviewing the clinical records of 120 clients diagnosed as having ANSD. There was no relation between pure-tone thresholds and speech perception skills. However, better speech perception was found in clients who had peaked and rising audiometric configurations as compared to other patterns. A significant association was obtained between the duration of the disorder and audiometric configurations. However, no relation was found between the duration of the disorder and the degree of hearing loss and speech identification scores (SIS). The majority of the clients had a non-syndromic onset in the first two decades of life, unlike the reports of the Western population. The duration of the disorder had an impact on audiometric configuration, but not on the degree of hearing loss and SIS. A genetic condition could have lead to the onset of the problem, as several clients either had a family history of hearing loss or consanguineous marriage.