Role of brainstem auditory evoked potential in Forensic Medicine

Abstract

Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potential (BAEP) is an
important test used in clinical practice. It is used to
diagnose auditory threshold changes and to
characterize the type of hearing loss as it does not
depends on voluntary response from the subject. Its
role in forensic medicine becomes relevant for the
assessment of type of hearing loss in medicolegal cases
for conductive or sensory neural. It can be used for
assessing nature of injuring cases of malingering and
pinpointing the neuronal pathway, hhearing loss and
whether the victim had hearing loss before the injury or
after the injury. This study presents latencies of wave I,
II, III, IV and V, interpeak latencies of wave I‐III, I‐V, III‐V
and amplitudes of waves I‐Ia, V‐Va and absolute
amplitude R in 100 healthy normal hearing in medical
students of same age group comprising of 50 females
and 50 male for comparison of inter gender difference
and for the purpose of establishing normal values. In
the present study, it has been concluded that there is
highly significant difference in the waves and interpeak
latencies III, V and I‐V between females and males. It
was also found that the duration of wave I showed
statistically highly significant differences and V‐Va
showed significant difference between left and right ear
in females. It was also found that the duration of wave
showed statistically highly significant difference in
males.