An Absorbance Peak Template for Clinical Assessment of Sound Conduction in Newborn Ears

Power absorbance measures recorded over a wide range of frequencies allow for clinical inferences about the outer/middle ears' acoustic mechanics. A frequency-dependent feature in the newborn wideband absorbance response, the prominent mid-frequency absorbance peak, has been linked to middle-ear resonance. However, current normative methods were not designed to assess subtle changes in such features. This work aims to develop and validate an absorbance peak template (APT) for assessment of absorbance peaks in newborns. Additional objectives are to compare test performance of absorbance peaks and APTs to existing normative methods, to demonstrate APT-based methods for categorization of abnormal absorbance peaks, and to describe absorbance peak test-retest variability.

Peak absorbance and peak frequency were analyzed in a training data set (490 measurements in 84 newborn ears who passed transient evoked otoacoustic emissions [TEOAEs] screenings), and an APT was developed by computing normal limits on these two absorbance peak variables. Split-set analysis evaluated the reproducibility of APT, and test-retest analysis was performed. Test performance analysis, conveyed by area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AROC) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), compared absorbance peak variables to absorbance area indices (AAIs) in a validation data set (359 ears that passed distortion-product OAE [DPOAE] screening and 64 ears that failed). APT-based assessment paradigms for normal and abnormal ears were compared to the common absorbance normative range paradigm.

Split-set analysis demonstrated a good reproducibility of APT, and test-retest of absorbance peak variables showed that they were stable measures for clinical assessment. Test performance of peak absorbance (AROC = 0.83; 95% CI [0.77, 0.88]) was comparable to the top-performing AAI variables (AROC = 0.85; 95% CI [0.80, 0.90]). APT-based assessment categorized measurements based on their peak absorbance and peak frequency and enhanced the detection of subtle frequency changes that were missed by the normative range method.

Analysis of absorbance peaks guided by APT has the potential to simplify and improve assessments of sound conduction pathways in newborn ears and can be used together with or in-place of current methods for analysis of wideband absorbance data.