Stapedial Reflex Test in Healthy Neonates

This study aimed to evaluate the test-retest reliability of the acoustic stapedial reflex (ASR) test in healthy neonates. ASRs were elicited by presenting a 2 kHz pure tone and broadband noise (BBN) separately to the test ear in an ipsilateral stimulation mode. For both stimuli, the ASR test showed high test-retest reliability as demonstrated by intra-correlation coefficients across the test-retest conditions of 0.83 for the 2 kHz pure tone and 0.76 for the BBN stimulus. The high intra-correlation coefficients obtained in this study illustrate the reliability of the ASR test. Given the high test-retest reliability, the ASR test holds promise as a useful diagnostic/screening instrument in ascertaining the hearing status in neonates.