[Detection of the Presence of Middle-ear Effusion with Wideband Absorbance Tympanometry].

This study evaluated the ability of wideband absorbance (AB) to predict the presence of middle-ear effusion (MEE) in ears with a flat (type B) 226 Hz tympanogram (TG). AB measures were obtained in a no MEE group of 8 ears with a flat TG and a MEE group of 19 ears also with a flat TG. AB was significantly small at frequencies 2 and 4 kHz in the MEE group than in the no MEE group. Based on our results, it appeared that AB could detect MEE with higher specificity than conventional tympanometry. The presence or absence of MEE could be distinguished based on the average AB using 1, 2, and 4 kHz, with 40% as the cutoff point.