Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts 01063, USA.
Ear Hear. 2010 Dec;31(6):746-54. doi: 10.1097/AUD.0b013e3181e68e68.
Ear-canal-based wideband reflectance (WBR) measurements may provide objective measures to assess and monitor middle-ear status in young babies. This work presents WBR measurements of power reflectance and transmittance on populations of healthy newborn babies (3 to 5 days) and healthy 1-mo-old babies (28 to 34 days). Thus, this work determines how power reflectance and transmittance vary between newborn and 1-mo-old babies and characterizes the range of these measures in normal populations.
Power reflectance and transmittance were calculated from pressure measurements made in the ear canals of seven newborn (12 ears) and eleven 1-mo-old (19 ears) babies. Permutation tests, t tests, and regression (random effects) models were used to test the effects of age (newborn versus 1 mo), gender, and ear side (right versus left).
The power reflectance and transmittance did not differ significantly for the age comparison (newborn versus 1 mo), although the results suggest a possible difference between newborn and 1-mo-old ears near 2000 Hz. There were no differences between the male and female ears. There are small but significant differences between left and right ears in three frequency bands encompassing 500 to 4000 Hz, where the predicted power reflectance mean for the left ear differs from the right ear by 0.02 to -0.07 depending on the frequency band.
At most frequencies, power reflectance and transmittance are indistinguishable for newborn and 1-mo-old healthy babies, with limited or no differences between the two age groups and the males and females. There were small differences in some frequency bands for left and right ears. The measurements made here are similar to other published results in some frequency ranges but differ in other frequency ranges; differences among other studies from neonatal intensive care unit babies, healthy newborn babies, and healthy 1-mo-old babies are discussed.
基于耳道的宽带反射率（WBR）测量可能为评估和监测婴儿中耳状态提供客观指标。本工作对 3 至 5 天的健康新生儿和 28 至 34 天的健康 1 个月大婴儿的群体进行了 WBR 功率反射率和透射率测量。因此，本工作确定了功率反射率和透射率在新生儿和 1 个月大婴儿之间的变化，并描述了正常人群中这些测量值的范围。
从 7 名新生儿（12 耳）和 11 名 1 个月大婴儿（19 耳）的耳道压力测量中计算出功率反射率和透射率。使用置换检验、t 检验和回归（随机效应）模型来检验年龄（新生儿与 1 个月）、性别和耳侧（右耳与左耳）的影响。
年龄比较（新生儿与 1 个月）时，功率反射率和透射率没有显著差异，尽管结果表明在 2000Hz 左右新生儿和 1 个月大婴儿的耳朵之间可能存在差异。男性和女性耳朵之间没有差异。在 500 至 4000Hz 三个频段内，左右耳之间存在微小但显著的差异，其中左耳的预测功率反射率均值与右耳相差 0.02 至-0.07，具体取决于频段。
在大多数频率下，新生儿和 1 个月大的健康婴儿的功率反射率和透射率无法区分，两个年龄组之间以及男性和女性之间没有差异或差异很小。左右耳在一些频段存在微小差异。这里的测量结果与其他一些已发表的结果在某些频率范围内相似，但在其他频率范围内有所不同；还讨论了来自新生儿重症监护病房婴儿、健康新生儿和健康 1 个月大婴儿的其他研究之间的差异。
