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Comparison of wideband energy reflectance and tympanometric measures obtained with Reflwin Interacoustics, Mimosa Acoustics and GSI Tympstar systems

University of British Columbia

In this study the effects of gender, instrument, and ethnicity on measures of wideband energy reflectance, wideband reflectance tympanometry and standard tympanometry were analyzed. Measures of energy reflectance (ER) and power absorption (PA) were made using the Mimosa Acoustics and Reflwin Interacoustics middle ear analyzer systems. Tympanograms were generated using the Reflwin Interacoustics system and GSI Tympstar. There were a total of sixty normal hearing participants (113 ears), with an equal number of Chinese and Caucasian males and females. There were five primary purposes to the following study: (1) To determine whether the Mimosa and the Reflwin systems yield similar measures of ER and PA; (2) To determine whether pressurization method (static versus dynamic) has an effect on ER and PA measurements obtained using the Reflwin system; (3) To determine whether the Mimosa and Reflwin systems are capable of detecting ER and PA differences that exist between Chinese and Caucasian young adults; (4) To determine whether Reflwin and GSI tympstar generate comparable tympanograms; and (5) To determine how effectively the norms from each instrument can be used to identify otosclerosis. Analysis of purpose (1) showed that the ER values were larger for the Mimosa system at frequencies below 630Hz. Analysis of purpose (2) showed that the dynamic pressurization technique resulted in lower PA at the low frequencies compared to the PA values obtained using the static pressurization technique. Analysis of purpose (3) showed that ER, PA, and tympanometric parameters obtained in this study were consistent with findings of previous studies in which ER, PA, Vea, Ytm and TW varied as a function of ethnicity. Analysis of purpose (4) showed that Ytm was larger and more variable for GSI Tympstar, TPP was more negative for the Reflwin system compared to the GSI Tympstar, and Vea was larger for the Reflwin system for the probe-tone frequency of 1000 Hz. Analysis of purpose (5) showed that both instruments are equally capable of detecting otosclerosis when static ER values at 500 Hz, 630 Hz, and 800 Hz are used. This suggests that instrument-specific norms are not warranted for the detection of otosclerosis.

Thesis/Dissertation

application/pdf

2009-09-14

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/12715

Audiology and Speech Sciences

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/