Investigate the reliability of the Otogram, a computer-assisted fully automated audiometer. It assesses air conduction and bone conduction thresholds and administers masking when appropriate. There has been no published study in a peer-reviewed journal, validating its use in an Otology-audiology clinic.
Methods
This is a prospective non-randomized study of 48 patients referred to a British otology clinic which served a population of approximately 1 million. This study took six months to complete. Each patient had two pure tone audiograms (PTAs). The first 16 patients had two manual PTAs performed by experienced audiologists. Hearing thresholds were ascertained by the audiologists and by the Otogram for the second group of 16 patients. The third group of 16 patients had two PTAs, each performed by the Otogram.
Results
In the first arm, when audiologists were compared with each other, 93% of air conduction thresholds fell within 10dB of each other and 88% of the paired bone conduction thresholds fell within 10dB of each other. 94% of air conduction thresholds and 91% of bone conduction thresholds measured by the Otogram fell within 10dB of thresholds measured by an audiologist. There was a very high level of agreement in air conduction thresholds(k=0.96, 95%CI=0.95-0.97) and bone conduction thresholds(k=0.92, 95%CI=0.90-0.95) between audiologist and Otogram. There was no statistical difference in the intra-rater agreement of the Otogram in comparison to the audiologists.
Conclusions
There is strong statistical evidence that the Otogram is a reliable automated audiometer in the clinical setting.
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