The sensitivity and specificity of wideband absorbance measure in identifying pathologic middle ears in adults living with HIV

Abstract

Background: Limited research exists on the sensitivity and specificity of wideband acoustic immittance (WAI) in adults living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This study forms part of the bigger study titled ‘wideband acoustic immittance in adults living with HIV’.Objectives: To determine the sensitivity and specificity of the wideband absorbance measure at tympanic peak pressure (TPP), as a screening tool for detecting middle ear pathologies in adults living with HIV.Method: A prospective nonexperimental study comprising 99 adults living with HIV was performed. All participants underwent a basic audiological test battery which included case history, video otoscopy, tympanometry, wideband absorbance at TPP and pure tone audiometry. Middle ear pathologies were established by two otorhinolaryngologists using asynchronous video otoscopic images analysis. The outcomes of the otorhinolaryngologists served as the gold standard against which the wideband absorbance at TPP and tympanometry were measured. The receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve was calculated.Results: ROC revealed the sensitivity of wideband absorbance at TPP to be higher in low to mid frequencies, but significantly lower in frequencies above 971.53 Hz. The sensitivity of tympanometry was lower. However, there was no difference between the specificity of wideband absorbance at TPP and tympanometry, indicating that when there are no pathologies, tympanometry is equally accurate.Conclusion: The current findings reveal that wideband absorbance at TPP can distinguish middle ear pathologies better than the tympanometry. Incorporating wideband absorbance at TPP in clinical practice may improve early identification and intervention of middle ear pathologies.

Measuring Absorbed Energy in the Human Auditory System Using Finite Element Models: A Comparison with Experimental Results

“…As shown in Figure 8 for module (A) and phase (B) EAC impedance, the values obtained with our FEMs corresponded to the data obtained by Zhang and Gan [36]. The blue curve represents the impedance of the EAC calculated according to Zhang and Gan to which a correction method [42] was applied to simulate our test condition (L = 0.03 m) and our EAC section (S), which thereby modified the value of the characteristic impedance (Zc). These results strongly concurred with the complete FEM model (CATIOSCO) for this correction.…”

Middle ear status – structure, function and pathology: A scoping review on middle ear status of COVID-19 positive patients

“…Furthermore, all studies have used tympanometry with single probe tone to measure the presence or absence of middle ear pathologies. Given the low sensitivity and specificity of tympanometry with single probe tone (Kaf, 2011 ), future studies need to incorporate sensitive measures of middle ear function such as the wideband acoustic immittance (WAI) (Robinson, Thompson, & Allen, 2016 ; Sebothoma, Khoza-Shangase, Mol, & Masege, 2021 ).…”

Middle Ear Pathologies Persist in Adults Living With HIV Despite the Use of Antiretroviral Therapy

“…Our study was conducted in an Adult HIV Clinic of an Academic Hospital, with participants coming in for their routine respective clinical management. 9,10 Therefore, all the participants in our cohort were on ART. We assessed middle ear function using case history to establish middle ear related symptoms, video otoscopy to capture video otoscopic images that were asynchronously analyzed and interpreted by otorhinolaryngologists, conventional tympanometry with 226Hz probe tone, wideband absorbance measure, and pure tone audiometry.…”