The characteristics of broad-band tympanometry in the volunteers with the unaffected hearing

Abstract

The objective of the present work was to elucidate the characteristics of broad-band tympanometry in the healthy subjects with the unaffected hearing ability. The study involved 54 volunteers (27 men and 27 women) at the age from 21 to 55 years exhibiting no pathologic changes in the ear system as confirmed by the tone threshold audiometry, otoacoustic emission, tympaometry at a frequency of 226 Hz, and reflexometry. All the participants of the study underwent absorbance measurements by broad-band tympanometry within the frequency range from 226 to 8,000 Hz at an ambient pressure. Five parameters have been detected which reflected the major characteristics of the absorbance curve, such as the maximum sound power absorbance ratio; the frequency at which the ear structures absorbed the maximum sound power; the frequency at which the absorbance ratio bounces off the plateau; the frequency at which the absorbance ratio plummets to plateau; and the frequency range within which the absorbance ratio underwent the most pronounced changes. The results obtained in the present study give evidence of response stability and the absence of the statistically significant differences in the absorbance parameters between the men and women obtained by their analysis for the ipsilateral and contralateral ears.