Utility of wideband tympanometry in a paediatric outpatient clinic

Abstract

Conventional tympanometry (CT) testing at 226 Hz is widely used for diagnostic assessments of middle ear disorders in clinical settings. However, the use of wideband tympanometry (WT) is advocated by many researchers, especially for paediatric population, because it tests from 250 Hz to 8000 Hz, which takes high frequency ear acoustics into account. This study aimed at comparing the tympanometric results of CT and WT to determine whether WT will help provide significantly different diagnoses. In addition, the results of CT and WT were compared with clinical diagnoses based on cases histories, pneumatic otoscopy and transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions. In this study, 43 participants were recruited, who were referrals from a paediatric otorhinolaryngology department to the audiology clinic in a large Chinese children’s hospital. Based on the statistical results, there were significant differences in the findings based on CT and WT procedures and the percentages of correct diagnoses were higher for WT in the participants who had otitis media with effusion with or without cleft lip and/or palate. In conclusion, this study confirms that WT can provide additional information to make more accurate diagnoses of the middle ear conditions in paediatric population, especially children with otitis media with effusion.