CLINICAL CASE 1 OF 8

A routine well-baby screen

Vignette

A healthy term newborn, 36 hours old, is screened on the postnatal ward before discharge. The baby is asleep and the room is quiet. The screener obtains a clear recording from both ears on the first attempt.

Findings

0 ms20 ms
— Normal earthis case
Simulated TEOAE comparison. Educational signal model — not recorded patient data.
-20-1001020DP level (dB SPL)1k1.5k2k3k4k6kf2 frequency (Hz)
● DP emission▮ Noise floor
A normal DP-gram. The emission sits comfortably above the noise floor at every test frequency — the margin between the two is the signal-to-noise ratio. Simplified teaching model, not calibrated normative data.

Diagnostic question

Both ears show a robust emission well above the noise floor, with high reproducibility. What is the correct screening outcome and next step?

References