Abstract:

Objective       To investigate the degree and characteristic of hearing loss and analyze the corresponding middle ear resonance frequencies in  patients with different types of tympanograms. Methods        30 normal ears and 116 abnormal ears were tested by GSI60 pure tone audiometry and GSI-Tympstar middle ear analyzer. Based on the results of tympanograms,116 abnormal ears were divided into 30 type A,22 type Ad,21  type As and 43 type C. All groups were tested by multiple frequency tympanometry and their middle ear resonance frequencies were compared. Results      The average resonance frequency of normal ears was 951±198.85,while it was 861±137.60Hz (P<0.01) for type A, 725±158.14Hz(P<0.01) for type Ad, 499±146.27Hz(P<0.01) for type C, and 1088±199.38Hz(P<0.05) for type As. The average resonance frequency of type A, type Ad and the type C group was lower than the normal group, but the type As group was higher. Conclusion        Clinical testing of resonance frequency is helpful for  the diagnosis and treatment of middle ear pathologies.

Key words: Hearing loss；Middle ear；Tympanogram；Resonance frequency