CLINICAL AND TYMPANOMETRIC ASSESSMENT OF MIDDLE EAREFFUSION VERSUS MYRINGOTOMY FINDING

Abstract

Background: The present study was planned to show the accuracy of clinical examination and
tympanometry in diagnosis of middle ear effusion.
Patients and Methods: The study involved 80 patients (160 ears )suspected to have otitis media
with effusion (OME) from different age groups ; 56 were males and 24 were females .
Clinical assessment for all patients included otoscopy , pneumatic otoscopy and audiological
assessment by using pure tone audiometry and tympanometry then comparing the results to
findings at myringotomy as the gold standard for presence or absence of fluid in the middle ear .
Results : Fluid whether serous or glue was found in 100 ears ( 62.5 %) where as sixty ears were
dry, sensitivity , specificity and accuracy of tympanometry were 90 % , 70 % and 85 %
respectively , and for clinical assessment were 82 % , 52% and 71 % respectively . A combined
clinical and tympanometry sensitivity and specificity were calculated and found to be 96 % and
92 % respectively.
Conclusion : clinical examination as a method for diagnosis of middle ear effusion depend on
experience of the examiner . tympanometry proved to be a reliable diagnostic tool for the
diagnosis of OME , it appeared significantly better at determining non effusion state.