Sensitivity and specificity of eustachian tube function tests in adults.

Importance: The study demonstrates the utility of eustachian tube (ET) function (ETF) test results for accurately assigning ears to disease state.

Objectives: To determine if ETF tests can identify ears with physician-diagnosed ET dysfunction (ETD) in a mixed population at high sensitivity and specificity and to define the interrelatedness of ETF test parameters.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Through use of the forced-response, inflation-deflation, Valsalva, and sniffing tests, ETF was evaluated in 15 control ears of adult subjects after unilateral myringotomy (group 1) and in 23 ears of 19 adult subjects with ventilation tubes inserted for ETD (group 2).

Relationship between the electromyographic activity of the paratubal muscles and eustachian tube opening assessed by sonotubometry and videoendoscopy.

Objective: To determine the role played by the tensor veli palatini and levator veli palatini muscles (mTVP and mLVP, respectively) in eustachian tube (ET) opening.

Design: Prospective study.

Setting: Research laboratories at a tertiary care hospital.

In vivo measurement of O(2) and CO(2) gas exchange across the human tympanic membrane.

Conclusion: The hypothesis that the human tympanic membrane (TM) is permeable to CO(2) and O(2) at physiologic pressure gradients is supported but additional experiments need to be done to validate this methodology.

Objective: Gas exchange between the middle ear and adjacent compartments determines the trajectory of middle ear pressure change. Little information is available regarding the permeability of the TM to physiological gases.

Accuracy of CO2 conductance predicted using a morphometric model of the middle ear mucosa.

Conclusion: These results hold promise that morphometric analysis can be used to generate transMEM (middle ear mucosa) gas conductance estimates for MEM geometries representative of the shift from healthy to pathologic states (e.g. increased MEM thickness and capillary density).