title: Middle ear effusion: relationship of tympanometry and air-bone gap to viscosity.
abstract: Sixty cases comprising 95 ears were reviewed in which myringotomy with ventilation tube insertion had been performed for alleviation of middle ear effusion and for which tympanometric and pure-tone audiometric data had been collected within five days of surgery (mean = 1.0 days). Results suggest that types B and C tympanograms in combination with greater than 15 dB air-bone gaps are good indicants of thick fluid in children less than nine years old. No tympanometric patterns in combination with air-bone gap data systemactically predicted thin fluid. For all subjects, type C tympanograms with less than 15 dB air-bone gaps indicated an absence of significant fluid at surgery.
mesh_terms: D000158:Acoustic Impedance Tests; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001299:Audiometry; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008875:Middle Aged; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010034:Otitis Media with Effusion / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D014432:Tympanic Membrane / Q000601:surgery