Effects of inner ear abnormalities on middle ear mechanics: Findings from adults with MD and LVAS

Objective: To evaluate the clinical significance of WAI as a predictive marker for MD and LVAS among adults. Methods: Participants included 110 ears with MD, 18 ears with LVAS, and 92 normal ears (control group) recruited from clinical audiology settings. The outcome measures included Wideband Energy Absorbance (WBA), Resonance Frequency (RF), admittance Magnitude (YM), and phase Angle (YA). Propensity Score Matching (PSM) was conducted to treat the group imbalance. Results: Compared with the control group, The MD group exhibited significantly lower WBA between 1587 and 4000 Hz (p < 0.05), while the LVAS group showed lower WBA between 1000 and 2520 Hz (p < 0.05). The MD and LVAS groups had lower RF (p < 0.05), while they had higher YM at low frequencies (226 and 678 Hz for MD, and 1000 Hz for LVAS, p < 0.05). Conclusions: This study showed that LVAS has a lower WBA at middle frequencies, whereas MD has a lower WBA at middle and high frequencies. These findings suggest that WAI may serve as a predictive marker for MD and LVAS. However, further studies are needed to explore its diagnostic utility in Third Mobile Window Abnormalities (TMWA). Level of evidence: IV: Retrospective cohort study.