Digital holographic interferometry applied to the study of tympanic membrane displacements

Quantitative studies of the mechanical properties of tympanic membrane (TM) are needed for better understanding of its role in detailed clinical evaluation, its research being of extreme importance because it is one of the most important structures of the middle ear. By finding the membrane's vibration patterns and quantifying the induced displacement it is possible to characterize and determine its physiological status. Digital holographic interferometry (DHI) has proved to be a reliable optical non-invasive and full-field-of-view technique for the investigation of different mechanical parameters of biological tissues, i.e., DHI has demonstrated an ability to detect displacement changes in quasi-real time and without the need to contact the sample's surface under study providing relevant information, such as clinical and mechanical sample properties. In this research fresh tympanic membrane specimens taken from post-mortem cats are subjected to acoustic stimuli in the audible frequency range producing resonant vibration patterns on the membrane, a feature that results in an ideal application for DHI. An important feature of this approach over other techniques previously used to study the tympanic membrane vibrations is that it only requires two images and less hardware to carry out the measurements, making of DHI a simpler and faster technique as compared to other proposed approaches. The results found show a very good agreement between the present and past measurements from previous research work, showing that DHI is a technique that no doubt will help to improve the understanding of the tympanic membrane's working mechanisms.

Research highlights► The effects of sound pressure waves in the middle ear resulting in TM displacements were found by DHI. ► The tympanic membrane motion was characterized by measuring displacements on the TM's surface. ► By quantifying the TM surface displacement is possible to characterize TM's physiological status. ► The resonant vibration patterns of TM will expand the understanding of TM's working mechanisms.