Measurement of umbo vibration in human subjects--method and possible clinical applications

A commercial laser doppler vibrometer (LDV) was used to evaluate umbo displacement at sound pressure levels of 60, 70, and 80 dB SPL at the tympanic membrane (TM) of six subjects. Thirty-five pure-tone test frequencies, five per octave, were tested from 140 to 19,433 Hz. A computer program (Tymptest) produced and controlled the tones as well as improved the signal-to-noise ratio of the LDV. The test took about an hour to perform and provided reproducible results in all subjects. In addition, measurement of umbo displacement using the same system was made in 15 fresh human temporal bones for comparison. Results in the humans revealed a relatively flat umbo displacement from 140 to 1000 Hz, with a gradually sloping roll-off of -8.25 dB per octave from 1000 to 7000 Hz. From 8000 to 14,000 Hz the roll-off increased to -12.5 dB per octave. At the mean resonant frequency of the middle ear, 1000 Hz, and an 80 dB SPL input, umbo displacement was 0.045 micron. The human temporal bones showed similar results. Possible future clinical applications of this measurement include the identification of ears with acoustically inefficient TMs (tin ears). By identifying and studying such ears we should be able to develop methods to improve their function and produce hearing threshold increases of 15 dB or more at key speech frequencies. In addition, analysis of umbo and TM vibration in reconstructed middle ears should help us achieve better postoperative hearing results.