Effects of Otosclerosis on Middle Ear Function Assessed With Wideband Absorbance and Absorbed Power.
M Patrick Feeney, Douglas H Keefe, Lisa L Hunter and 3 others
PMID 33156125WHAT IT FOUND
Normal 226 Hz tympanometry did not separate otosclerosis ears from controls.
Wideband absorbed power gave the best separation at 1.71 kHz, but absorbance results were mixed.
Key findings
01The 226 Hz tympanometry measure did not distinguish ears with otosclerosis from controls: group means were similar, and classification accuracy was near chance.
02Absorbed power separated otosclerosis ears from normal-hearing ears better than absorbance did, with the best separation at 1.71 kHz ambient and 4 kHz peak-to-negative-tail.
03After stapes surgery, ambient absorbance increased at 0.71 and 1 kHz at 3 months, and ambient absorbed power increased at 1 kHz.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only 23 ears with otosclerosis were tested, and only 12 ears had both pre-operative and 3-month post-operative data. Some otosclerosis ears were not surgically confirmed in the test ear; confirmation was only in the opposite ear. The normal-hearing control group was 20 years younger than the otosclerosis group, so age had to be handled with a separate matched group. The age-matched control group had sensorineural hearing loss, so it was not a pure hearing-normal comparison. The post-surgery subset was small: 12 ears at 3 months and 10 ears at 6 months. The authors note that previous studies used different equipment and procedures, and they recommend local normative data, so results may not transfer directly to other clinics.
Declared interests
The supplied article text does not include a conflicts or funding declaration; the provided publication types list NIH extramural research support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that wideband absorbance or absorbed power can diagnose otosclerosis in routine practice. The study compared selected groups, many differences did not reach the study's statistical threshold, and classification performance varied by frequency and measure, so these tests are not yet a stand-alone diagnostic.