The clinical reliability of brain stem auditory evoked responses.

Auditory evoked responses thought to originate in the brain stem were investigated in patients with and without good evidence of brain stem pathology, and in healthy volunteers. The purpose of the investigation was to find a method of quantifying these evoked responses which would be clinically useful. The best quantitative measure was the latencies of certain peaks in the evoked response considered in combination. This measure indicated abnormal brain stem evoked responses in 64% of patients with good independent evidence of brain stem pathology; 23% of patients with equivocal independent evidence of brain stem pathology; and 0% of healthy volunteers.