Wei De Kenneth Chua
Department of Allied Health, Audiology, Otorhinolaryngology, Changi General Hospital, Singapore 529889, Singapore.
Audiol Res. 2020 Dec 16;10(2):77-82. doi: 10.3390/audiolres10020013.
: Tympanometry is a routine clinical test ordered at the Department of Otolaryngology, Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) at Changi General Hospital (CGH). In combination with the pure tone audiogram, tympanograms aid in the diagnostic value of various middle ear disorders. However, its diagnostic value depends on the physician and audiologist's accuracy of classifying and interpreting the tympanograms. Presently, Caucasian normative values are used in the classification of tympanograms, which could be inaccurate without population specific norms. Therefore, there is a need to understand ethnic differences in tympanometry parameters in order to usefully interpret the tympanogram. Thus far, there are no local studies on the differences in tympanometric parameters among multiethnic groups. Previous studies also had conflicting results on the effects of ethnicity with direct or indirect comparison only between two ethnic groups. To our knowledge, this is the first preliminary investigation on the effects of demographic and anthropometric measurements on tympanometric parameters. : 90 patients' medical charts were randomly selected and reviewed to extract demographic, anthropometric and clinical information. Tympanogram characteristics among ethnic groups were investigated using univariate and multivariate analyses. The mean ages of males and females in the study were 41.9 years ± 17.4 and 46.1 ± 19.2, respectively. : Gender significantly influenced ear canal volume (ECV). Chinese had marginally significant lower static admittance (SA) as compared to non-Chinese. There were, however, no effects of age or anthropometric measurements on tympanometric results. Conclusion: Further prospective large cohort analyses are warranted to expand this investigation to better elucidate differences observed in tympanometric parameters and establish population specific norms for appropriate and accurate tympanogram classifications.
鼓室导抗图测试是樟宜综合医院耳鼻喉科的一项常规临床检查。结合纯音听力图，鼓室导抗图有助于诊断各种中耳疾病。然而，其诊断价值取决于医生和听力学家对鼓室导抗图进行分类和解读的准确性。目前，鼓室导抗图的分类采用白种人的标准值，在没有特定人群标准的情况下可能不准确。因此，有必要了解鼓室导抗测量参数的种族差异，以便有效地解读鼓室导抗图。到目前为止，尚未有关于多民族群体鼓室导抗测量参数差异的本地研究。之前的研究在种族影响方面也存在相互矛盾的结果，且仅在两个种族之间进行了直接或间接比较。据我们所知，这是第一项关于人口统计学和人体测量学指标对鼓室导抗测量参数影响的初步研究。随机抽取并查阅了90例患者的病历，以提取人口统计学、人体测量学和临床信息。采用单因素和多因素分析研究不同种族群体的鼓室导抗图特征。该研究中男性和女性的平均年龄分别为41.9岁±17.4岁和46.1岁±19.2岁。性别对耳道容积（ECV）有显著影响。与非华裔相比，华裔的静态声导纳（SA）略低。然而，年龄或人体测量学指标对鼓室导抗测量结果没有影响。结论：有必要进行进一步的前瞻性大样本队列分析，以扩大这项研究，更好地阐明鼓室导抗测量参数中观察到的差异，并建立适用于准确鼓室导抗图分类的特定人群标准。
