Clinical applicability of the sweep frequency measuring apparatus for diagnosis of middle ear diseases.
OBJECTIVE
To develop a measuring apparatus that has the ability to sweep both frequency and external auditory meatus static pressure and can display measurement results in a three-dimensional expression. To measure the middle ear dynamic characteristics of normal-hearing subjects and of patients with this apparatus.


METHODS
Investigate 275 ears of 153 normal-hearing subjects and 72 ears with middle ear diseases.


RESULTS
The measurement results show fairly distinctive patterns depending on the middle ear conditions, i.e., normal, ossicular chain separation, ossicular chain fixation, secretory otitis media, tympanic membrane perforation, and tympanic membrane atelectasis. The evaluation of patients with ossicular diseases revealed that the rate of correct diagnosis of ossicular chain separation is 84% and that of ossicular chain fixation is 74%. These diagnoses were confirmed by surgery.


CONCLUSIONS
Displaying the measurement results in a three-dimensional expression is helpful to make correct diagnosis in clinical practice. It is especially easy to make a distinction between the ossicular chain separation and ossicular chain fixation. Therefore, it is concluded that this apparatus has a high degree of clinical applicability to the diagnosis of these diseases.
Wada
H
H
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
Koike
T
T
Kobayashi
T
T
D000158:Acoustic Impedance Tests / Q000379:methods; D004427:Ear Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology*; D004432:Ear, Middle / Q000473:pathology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000295:instrumentation; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans