Middle ear impedance studies in elderly patients implications on age-related hearing loss.

Introduction: Controversies arise with respect to functioning of the middle ear over time.

Objective: To assess changes in middle ear impedance that may be related to aging, and/or if there was an association of these changes with those of the inner ear in the elderly patients.

Methods: Cross-sectional, comparative study of elderly patients managed in ear, nose and throat clinics. A structured questionnaire was administered to obtain clinical information. Pure tone audiometry, tympanometry, and acoustic reflexes were performed. Comparative analyses were performed to detect intergroup differences between clinico-audiometric findings and middle ear measures, viz. tympanograms and acoustic reflexes.

Results: One hundred and three elderly patients participated in the study; 52.4% were male, averagely 70.0±6.3 years old, age-related hearing loss in 59.2%, abnormal tympanograms in 39.3%, absent acoustic reflex in 37.9%. There was no association between age and gender in patients with abnormal tympanograms and absent acoustic reflex. Significantly more patients with different forms and grades of age-related hearing loss had abnormal tympanometry and absent acoustic reflex.

Conclusion: Some abnormalities were observed in the impedance audiometric measures of elderly patients, which were significantly associated with parameters connected to age-related hearing loss.