Interacoustics has for some time cooperated with Douglas Keefe, Ph.D., and Boys Town National Research Hospital (BTNRH) in developing research instrumentation for wideband reflectance (WBR). Douglas Keefe and colleagues have been using WBR measurements in middle-ear research for years, and the more recent cooperation with Interacoustics has now resulted in a research system for WBR. This system, which was developed with grant support from the National Institutes of Health, is in current use in research at BTNRH and elsewhere.
The Interacoustics system consists of a modified Interacoustics AT235 impedance bridge, a new ear-canal probe specially designed for WBR measurements, calibration tools, a dedicated PC with built-in processing card, and last but not least Douglas Keefe's WBR research software loaded onto the PC, with data directly transferable to MatLab. Matlab scripts are provided as a utility library of analysis, plotting and database routines. The system is capable of doing both ambient pressure and pressurized WBR ("WBR Tympanometry"), as well as WB Acoustic Reflex measurements, in infant and adult ears. This system is strictly a research system; it has not been approved for clinical testing of human patients.
Please contact Bue Kristensen at Bue@Interacoustics.com for further details, or meet with him at the ARO meeting Febr. 16-21, 2008 in Phoenix, AZ, or at the AAS meeting March 6-8, 2008, Scottsdale, AZ.
For more information, visit www.interacoustics-us.com or the Interacoustics Web Channel on Audiology Online.
Research Systems for Wideband Reflectance (WBR) Testing of Middle-Ear Function.
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