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Research Article: Application of wideband tympanometry combined with kempthorne criteria in the diagnosis of otitis media with effusion in adults: a prospective study

Date Published: 2026-09-24

Abstract:
To describe clinical and audiological characteristics and evaluate the diagnostic value of wideband tympanometry (WBT) combined with Kempthorne otoscopic features in adults with otitis media with effusion (OME). A prospective descriptive study with surgical intervention was conducted on 66 ears with clinically suspected OME in patients aged ?16 years at Can Tho University of Medicine and Pharmacy Hospital from June 2024 to October 2025. Kempthorne score >5 was used solely as an eligibility threshold. Clinical examination, rigid otoscopy, pure-tone audiometry, conventional 226-Hz tympanometry, and WBT were performed. Intraoperative middle-ear fluid at myringotomy served as the positive reference standard in 31 operated ears; the remaining 35 non-operated ears were classified as disease-negative without surgical verification (composite reference standard with partial verification). An a priori sample-size calculation targeted ?28 surgically verified ears ( ? =0.05, power 80%); post hoc power for AUC comparison was 84.6%. Three diagnostic strategies were evaluated: (1) standard 226-Hz tympanometry (type B or C); (2) WBT alone; (3) combined model—positive WBT plus ?1 high-yield Kempthorne morphological feature (air-fluid level and/or absent mobility), excluding the enrollment threshold. All enrolled ears had Kempthorne scores >5. Against the 66-ear composite reference dataset (31 fluid-positive, 35 assumed fluid-negative), sensitivity/specificity/AUC were 100.0%/68.2%/0.84 for standard tympanometry, 77.4%/81.8%/0.91 for WBT alone, and 93.5%/86.4%/0.94 for the combined model (McNemar p =?0.042). Among surgically verified ears, standard 226-Hz tympanometry detected all fluid-positive cases (sensitivity 100.0%). Operated and non-operated ears did not differ significantly on key preoperative indices (all p >?0.05). WBT combined with specific Kempthorne morphological features provided complementary morphological and absorbance information in adult OME. However, because standard tympanometry already achieved 100% sensitivity in the operated subset, any apparent advantage of the combined model in specificity, NPV, and AUC is derived largely from the surgically unverified reference-negative subset and must be interpreted with caution in light of severe partial verification bias.

Introduction:
To describe clinical and audiological characteristics and evaluate the diagnostic value of wideband tympanometry (WBT) combined with Kempthorne otoscopic features in adults with otitis media with effusion (OME).

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