Wideband acoustic immittance for assessing middle ear functioning for preterm neonates in the neonatal intensive care unit.
Nandel Gouws, De Wet Swanepoel, Leigh Biagio De Jager
PMID 28697607WHAT IT FOUND
Wideband acoustic immittance was measured in 75 preterm NICU ears with chirp and 82 with tone, but results were variable and 19.3% of samples from 961 Hz to 2016 Hz were corrected.
It did not show the test can identify middle ear dysfunction.
Key findings
01WAI measurements could be obtained in 75 ears using a chirp stimulus and in 82 ears using a tone stimulus.
02From 961 Hz to 2016 Hz, 322 of 1665 samples were corrected to a reflectance value of 100%, which was 19.3% of data in that range.
03For the 0th to 75th percentiles, the low-frequency range below 1 kHz had the highest reflectance values.
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How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was exploratory and did not include preterm neonates with confirmed conductive pathology, so it cannot show whether WAI distinguishes affected ears from unaffected ears. All participants had passed DPOAE and AABR screening, which may have missed minor outer or middle ear pathology. NICU noise was not measured, and 19.3% of samples from 961 Hz to 2016 Hz were corrected because reflectance exceeded 100%. Probe fit was difficult because neonatal ear canals are small, and poor seal can affect low-frequency reflectance. Neonates were tested at 32 to 37 weeks gestational age, so results may not apply to full-term infants or older infants.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that wideband acoustic immittance is ready to diagnose middle ear dysfunction in preterm neonates. The study was exploratory, all participants had passed hearing screening, and it did not compare WAI results with ears that had confirmed conductive pathology.