Multifrequency multicomponent tympanometry in normal and otosclerotic ears

Abstract

A multifrequency multicomponent admittance meter was used to evaluate 70 ears of patients affected by fenestral otosclerosis (Os ears), monolateral (16 cases) or bilateral (27 cases). The 16 contralateral ears of the patients with monolateral otosclerosis who presented a pure-tone air-bone gap less than 10 dB were evaluated separately (Cos ears). A group of 48 ears belonging to 24 otologically normal subjects (N ears), with hearing thresholds better than or equal to 10dB HL in the frequencies between 250 and 8000 Hz served as a control group. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the acoustic admittance characteristics of the three groups of ears, with particular regard to the parameters represented by the resonance frequency (RF), the acoustic conductance value (G) at RF and the individual interaural differences in these two parameters in the N and Cos groups. The degree to which fenestral otosclerosis can influence variations of RF and the correlation between the value of RF and conductive hearing loss in patients with clinically confirmed pictures and in the controlateral ears in the cases where the disease was clinically unilateral were also investigated. The study reveals statistically significant differences between the RF means in the N group (1085 +/- 244Hz) vs the Os group (1264 +/- 320 Hz) (p < 0.001) and between the G means in the N group (5.33 +/- 1.72 mmhos) vs the Os group (4.46 +/- 2.54 mmhos) (p = 0.04) and N group vs Cos group (3.42 +/- 2.27 mmhos) (p < 0.001). No correlation was found between the value of RF and conductive hearing loss. This study also shows how prognostic value may also be attributed to conductance at middle-ear pressure balancement: extremely low values for this parameter at RF are indicative of initial otosclerotic involvement of the oval window.

Normative data of multifrequency tympanometry in rabbits

“…In our studies, amplitude pressure was between 0 and 2100 daPa, thus falling within the normal range for data in human medicine (Shahnaz & Polka 1997, Miani et al 2000, Lehnhardt & Laszig 2001. The pressure fluctuations observed in the rabbit are, however, still within the tolerance range of 100 daPa.…”

Treatment of hyperacusis in Williams syndrome with bilateral conductive hearing loss

“…A-type tympanograms and absence of the stapedial ipsilateral and contralateral reflexes were also evident on both sides (Fig.2). Multifrequency multicomponent tympanometry revealed a resonance frequency (RF) of 1400 Hz on the left, suggesting a possible otosclerosis on the basis of our reference data of 1085±244 Hz for normal ears [8] (Fig.2). The RF of the other ear, however, fell within the normal range (1000 Hz).…”

Multi-Frequency Tympanometry: Clinical Applications for the Assessment of the Middle Ear Status

“…In addition, Coletti was the first to show not only that the RF is higher in otoscleotic ears, but also that there is a tendency towards lower values in ears that had a total stapedectomy, compared to the ones where the stapedial tendon was preserved, thus confirming that preservation of the stapedial tendon adds significant stiffness to the system [6,21]. His results were later confirmed by other authors [6,13,[16][17][18]. Higher RF is also found in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) [22,23].…”

“…RF is the most useful parameter measured by multi-frequency tympanometry, with the published data showing a relative consistency in normal adults. The mean RF is around 950 Hz, ranging from 650 to 1,400 Hz [3,[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] (Table 1).…”