Human fetal auditory threshold improvement during maternal oxygen respiration

Haim Sohmer*, Miriam Geal-Dor, Daniel Weinstein

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

It has been suggested that the near full-term fetus in-utero has a sensori-neural hearing loss compared to the neonate due to the relative hypoxia resulting from placental oxygenation compared to pulmonary oxygenation. This hypothesis was tested by estimating the threshold of the fetus to vibro-acoustic stimulation applied to the maternal abdomen while the mother was breathing room air and again when breathing oxygen. Fetal response was assessed by maternal perception of fetal movement and by objective demonstration of movement by ultrasound. It has been shown that the fetal responses are to the acoustic component of the stimulus, that the acoustic stimulus is not overly attenuated or masked, and that maternal oxygen inhalation enhances fetal oxygenation. The results showed that the threshold was lower and/or the response was stronger when the mother was breathing oxygen compared to when she was breathing room air. Thus it is confirmed that in-utero the fetus has an hypoxia-induced sensori-neural hearing loss. At birth, with the shift to more efficient pulmonary oxygenation, there is an improvement in auditory threshold.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)145-150
Number of pages6
JournalHearing Research
Volume75
Issue number1-2
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1994

Keywords

  • Fetus
  • Neonate
  • Oxygen
  • Sensori-neural
  • Threshold

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