A comparison between video otoscopy and standard tympanometry findings in adults living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in South Africa.
Ben Sebothoma, Katijah Khoza-Shangase
PMID 30035605WHAT IT FOUND
Video otoscopy and standard tympanometry often disagreed about middle ear problems in adults living with HIV.
Video otoscopy found problems in 11% of ears and tympanometry in 8%, but agreement was poor.
Key findings
01Video otoscopy indicated middle ear pathology in 11.5% of the sample, and tympanometry indicated it in 8%.
02The two measures agreed poorly: only four diagnoses were agreed on, and the agreement statistic was 0.2.
03The correlation between video otoscopy and tympanometry was weak (0.19; p = 0.13).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The paper states 87 adults were recruited but also says the study comprised 99 adults (198 ears), so the participant count is unclear. The study was small and sampled from one province, so it may not reflect adults living with HIV elsewhere. 25 ears were excluded because video images were too poor to analyse, so poor image quality could limit real-world use. 12 ears were excluded because the two ENT specialists disagreed, leaving 161 ears for the comparison. Individual antiretroviral treatment names were not documented, so possible differences by treatment could not be examined.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that video otoscopy should replace tympanometry. It found more pathologies, but the two measures agreed poorly in 161 ears, the correlation was weak (0.19; p = 0.13), and the study was small and single-site.