SLPOtherTrends in hearing2018

Contrasting Effects of Pressure Compensation on TEOAE and DPOAE in Children With Negative Middle Ear Pressure.

Snezana A Filipović, Mark P Haggard, Helen Spencer and 1 others

PMID 30484386

WHAT IT FOUND

Pressure compensation helped TEOAE pass more often in children with negative middle ear pressure.

It did not improve DPOAE pass rates in Study 1, though Study 2 found a 2 to 3 dB DPOAE gain in qualifying ears.

Key findings

01Pressure compensation increased TEOAE pass rates: left ear six more passes and right ear seven more, with significant McNemar changes (left p = .031; right p = .039).

02Pressure compensation did not significantly improve DPOAE pass rates: only two further right ears and no further left ears passed (McNemar left p = 1.0; right p = .5).

03Pressure compensation produced a mean gain of about 2 to 3 dB in qualifying DPOAE ears, with no significant frequency-by-compensation interaction.

STILL TO COME

How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs

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What it does not show

The testing was not done in a sound-isolated booth, and noise contributed to exclusions and low-frequency noise problems. Study 1 used a fixed test order, TEOAEs then DPOAEs. Study 2 analysed 20 children and 25 qualifying ears, which is too small to estimate routine screening benefit. The DPOAE pass-rate result was null in Study 1, while the 2 to 3 dB signal-to-noise gain came from adjusted and subset analyses. Subset restrictions, such as requiring higher compliance or signal-to-noise ratio, limit how widely the DPOAE compensation effect applies.

Declared interests

No funding or conflict-of-interest declaration is stated in the supplied text. The equipment named includes a GN Otometrics EchoMaster-OAE with pressure compensation and an Interacoustics AT235 tympanometer.

The easy way to misread this

Do not read the 2 to 3 dB DPOAE gain as evidence that pressure compensation routinely improves DPOAE screening. In Study 1, DPOAE pass rates did not significantly improve after compensation, and the Study 2 gain was found in selected qualifying ears.

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