Predictive accuracy of wideband absorbance in children with large vestibular aqueduct syndrome: A single-center retrospective study

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the clinical significance of Wideband Absorbance (WBA) in children with Large Vestibular Aqueduct Syndrome (LVAS), which could potentially serve as diagnostic and predictive markers for LVAS in children. Design: This was a single-center retrospective case-control study. Audiological measurements and Wideband Acoustic Immittance (WAI) were performed. Propensity score matching (PSM) was considered to treat group imbalance. The Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves and area under the ROC curve (AUC) were used to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of WBA. Study sample: Participants included 42 children with LVAS and 163 normal children aged 6 months −11 years recruited from clinical audiology settings between 2019 and 2021. Results: The WBA at Tympanometric Peak Pressure (WBA_TPP) and Ambient Pressure (WBA_A) in the LVAS group were significantly lower than those of the control group at 1259–2000 Hz but higher at 4000–6349 Hz (p < 0.05, power >0.8). The WBA_{A (1587 Hz)} AUC value was 0.805, identifying a score ≤0.565 as indicative of a LVAS risk. Conclusions: WBA holds promise in distinguishing LVAS from the normal condition and warrants further exploration as a tool to examine the influence of inner ear pressure on acoustic energy transmission in the middle ear.