Wideband acoustic energy absorbance in 172 infants
XIONG Qi
WANG Xiaoya
PENG Qiaochen
XIE Xiaojiu
LUO Renzhong
Abstract：Objective Wideband acoustic energy absorbance (WBA) was tested in 172 infants aged 1-36 months in an attempt to provide references for potential clinical applications. Methods Infants (n=172, 337 ears) aged 1-36 months who had passed tympanometry and distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) test were divided into 4 groups based on their age: Group 1(1-2 months, 86 ears), Group 2 (2-6 months, 61 ears), Group 3 (6-12 months, 97 ears) and Group 4 (above 12 months, 93 ears). All the infants re-ceived WBA test. Variations of absorbance among different groups were compared and relations between ab-sorbance characteristics and age were investigated. Results 1) Along with age, the WBA frequency-absor-bance curve changed from a“~”shape to a“^”shape. 2) WBA showed no significant differences for half of the tested frequencies between Groups 3 and 4. 3) The average WBA standard deviations for the four age groups were 0.2066, 0.1731, 0.1393 and 0.1583, showing a trend of decrease with age. Conclusions 1) WBA frequency-absorbance rate curves change with age, with gradually increasing mid frequency WBA relative to low and high frequencies. 2) The frequency-absorbance rate curve appears to stabilize after 7 months. 3) WBA variations also decrease along with age, indicating variable middle ear development at younger ages.
Keywords：WBA (wideband acoustic energy absorbance)DPOAE (distortion product otoacoustic emissions)infantsmiddle ear function
Publication Date：2015-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：6( 422-427 )