The primary objective of this tutorial is to enhance the understanding of two-component, multiple-frequency acoustic-immittance measurements in preparation for the next generation of computer-interfaced instruments and to demonstrate cases in which these measurements can be especially useful. With the rapid integration of computers into the field, acoustic-immittance measurements are likely to become even more sophisticated, thus increasing the gap between advances in technology and instrumentation and an understanding of acoustic-immittance data. Despite a significant body of literature demonstrating the advantage of using the more complex measurements for evaluating some types of middle-ear pathologies, many have persisted with the more familiar and simplified measurement techniques of the early 1970s. The next generation of instruments was capable of making two-component, two-frequency measurements.

The first generation of acoustic-immittance instruments measured only the magnitude of acoustic immittance using a single low-frequency probe tone. Tympanometry has been performed routinely in clinical settings since the early 1970s. Susceptance and Conductance Tympanograms.Peak Compensated Static Immittance Norms.Peak Compensated Static Acoustic Immittance.Analysis of Tympanometric Shape and Amplitude.Standardization of Acoustic-Immittance Instruments.