Model-based hearing diagnosis based on wideband tympanometry measurements utilizing fuzzy arithmetic
- Today's audiometric methods for the diagnosis of middle ear disease are often based on a comparison of measurements with standard curves that represent the statistical range of normal hearing responses. Because of large inter-individual variances in the middle ear, especially in wideband tympanometry (WBT), specificity and quantitative evaluation are greatly restricted. A new model-based approach could transform today's predominantly qualitative hearing diganostics into a quantitative and tailored, patient-specific diagnosis, by evaluating WBT measurements with the aid of a middle-ear model. For this particular investigation, a finite element model of a human ear was used. It consisted of an acoustic ear canal and a tympanic cavity model, a middle-ear with detailed nonlinear models of the tympanic membrane and annular ligament, and a simplified inner-ear model. This model has made it possible to identify pathologies from measurements, by analyzing the parameters through senstivity studies and parameter clustering. Uncertainties due to the lack of knowledge, subjectivity in numerical implementation and model simplification are taken into account by the application of fuzzy arithmetic. The most confident parameter set can be determined by applying an inverse fuzzy method on the measurement data. The principle and the benefits of this model-based approach are illustrated by the example of a two-mass oscillator, and also by the simulation of the energy absorbance of an ear with malleus fixation, where the parameter changes that are introduced can be determined quantitatively through the system identification.
Author of HS Reutlingen | Sackmann, Benjamin; Lauxmann, Michael |
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DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heares.2019.02.011 |
ISSN: | 0378-5955 |
eISSN: | 1878-5891 |
Erschienen in: | Hearing research |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Place of publication: | Amsterdam |
Document Type: | Journal article |
Language: | English |
Publication year: | 2019 |
Tag: | fuzzy arithmetic; middle-ear model; patient-specific diagnostic; wideband tympanometry |
Volume: | 378 |
Page Number: | 13 |
First Page: | 126 |
Last Page: | 138 |
DDC classes: | 570 Biowissenschaften, Biologie |
Open access?: | Nein |
Licence (German): | ![]() |