Curved length morphometry of the ear external canal as a diagnostic tool for otitis media
Authors: Abd-Elmagid Ahmed Elsir Mokhtar , Elfaki Amani Abdelrazag , Şahin Bünyamin , Ali Qurashi M. , Babikir Haydar Elhadi 
Published: April 2020

Introduction

Morphometry of the external ear canal (EEC) clinically essential and can lead to solve diagnostic dilemma of many disease affect the auditory system, as Otitis media (OM). OM continues to be one of the most common childhood infections and is a major cause of morbidity in children and adults if the OM complications occurs. Although OM is a leading cause of doctors’ visits by children, and the most frequent reason children consume antibiotics or undergo surgery in developed countries. In the USA the annual costs are about US $3–5 billion, but the true impact is probably underestimated because indirect costs might be substantially higher. EC measurement and shape are essential when designing many devices and comfort earplugs manufacturing to use in daily life.

Method

The Research Ethics Committee, at Faculty of Medicine, University of Gezira, Sudan, approved this an analytic observational case‐control study. Written informed consent obtained from all volunteer’s participants enrolled in the study. This study was conducted by the Declaration of Helsinki. Computed Tomography (CT) images of the temporal bones from volunteer patients and healthy subjects, were obtained from Khartoum State over a period of 3yrs (January 2015–2018). The study uses OsiriX image processing application for Mac (OsiriX Lite) to display images for the external ear area of the skull’s temporal bone, although for measurement of EC we used the ImageJ software (V 1.52a). Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SPSS V.22, and statistical software suite developed by SAS Institute (The SAS System V.9). Chi‐Square test was used and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis was applied to determine the power of Curved length in predicting patient.The level of significance was set at P‐value <0.05.

Results

The number of cases is 140, with a range of 18–40 years, they are patient 70 and healthy 70, the percentage of cases as 52.9 % (n=74) of the patients were females and 47.1% (n=66) are males. The mean of the curved length (CL) is ±35.93, Standard Deviation (SD) ± 5.79, and the minimum and maximum CL is 12.00 and 46.67, respectively. Distribution of CL by case shown that the patients mean±34.49, SD ±6.46, healthy mean ±37.37 SD ±4.66, t ±3.003 and the P‐value <0.003. Distribution of CL by Gender shown that in male mean ±36.56, SD ±6.19, female mean ±35.37, SD ±5.4. Distribution of CL by Side shown that left side mean ±35.81, and SD ±5.73, right side mean ± 36.05, and SD ±5.9.

Conclusion

If the CL value is equal to 35 or less, the case sample is classified as an otitis media patient. There is a highly significance differences in the CL between male’s patient’s and healthy the p‐value <0.038, and between females’ patients and healthy as the p‐value<0.016. and no significance differences comparing the patients and healthy groups with the gender, result shown that t =2.120 in males and in females t=2,225.