Laser interferometric vibration measurements of the middle ear in healthy humans

The use of spontaneous and evoked otacoustic emissions is now a standard clinical tool for diagnosis of the function of the inner ear. However, it is not possible to extract this information over the entire, functionally relevant frequency range because of imperfect coupling of: (1) stapedial to ear-drum vibrations through the ossicular chain of the middle ear and (2) ear-drum vibrations to air in the external auditory meatus. The problem could be circumvented if it were possible to measure the vibration of the stapes and ear drum. The ear drum can be visualized non-invasively, whereas the stapes is only accessible intra-operatively. Therefore, we designed a laser-interferometric system to non-invasively measure the vibration of the human ear drum. Vibrations were measured with a laser Doppler velocimeter (Polytec OFV-302) coupled into the side arm of an operating microscope (Zeiss OPMI MDM). The wavelength was 633 nm and emitted power was less than 1 mW. Direct coupling through the optics of the operating microscope, instead of through glass fibers, enabled a larger signal-to-noise ratio (20 - 30 dB) due to collection of more reflected light. This coupling scheme avoids the problems associated with having to place a reflecting material on the ear drum. The developed vibration measurement system allows non-invasive, fast and reproducible characterization of the dynamics of the human ear drum and as such can be used for clinical diagnostics.