Assessment of computerized system for diagnosis of hearing disorders based on finite-element modeling

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) vibrometry is a noninvasive tool for functional imaging of the middle ear. It provides vibrational responses and also anatomical images of the same ear. Our objective here was to explore the potential of OCT vibration measurements of the middle ear structures, to distinguish among middle-ear disorders. Our approach was to build finite-element models of both normal and pathological ears; generate large amounts of synthetic data; and then classify the simulated data into normal and pathological groups based onfeatures extracted from simulated vibration magnitudes.
We used a decision tree to distinguish between normal ears and pathological ears. The results suggest that the vibration measurements within the middle ear that can be provided by OCT (e.g., at the incus) may be very valuable for diagnosis.

Faculty Supervisor:

Robert Funnell

Student:

Partner:

DOCUSYS Corporation

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

McGill University

Program: