Test-Retest Reliability in Tympanometry

Abstract

Test-retest reliability for tympanometric measures was evaluated across five sessions in 20 subjects with normal hearing and normal middle-ear function. Tympanograms were obtained on each ear for probe frequencies of 226, 678, and 1000 Hz using both ascending and descending directions of pressure change. Across all conditions, the tympanometric measure that consistently demonstrated the highest test-retest reliability was compensated static acoustic admittance. Test-retest correlations for peak compensated static acoustic admittance measures were higher than those for ambient measures across all probe frequencies and both directions of pressure change; the differences in correlations for peak and ambient measures, however, reached significance only for 226-Hz conditions. Across-session correlations for tympanogram width did not differ significantly for measures referenced to the lowest tympanogram tail and those referenced to +200 daPa.