Quantification of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions by sample entropy to assess cochlear symptoms (Hearing and Tinnitus) in Meniere’s disease

The deteriorations of Meniere's disease (MD) cochlear symptoms (i.e., hearing loss and tinnitus) are progressive. We proposed sample entropy (SampEn) of transiently evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) for quantitative assessment of MD cochlear symptoms without subject-dependent variations and system-dependent differences to prevent impacts of MD cochlear symptoms on life qualities of patients. This cross-sectional study based in a single center investigated 1) the preferred parameters for estimation of TEOAE SampEn and 2) resulting performances in diagnosing of MD cochlear symptoms. Nineteen normal (38 ears) and 29 (29 ears) unilateral definitive MD were recruited between June 2021 and March 2022. Hearing loss and tinnitus of MD were measured by pure-tone audiometry and described by chief complaint, respectively. TEOAE SampEn were estimated using different parameters of data size N = 772, template length m from 1 to 9 and similarity tolerance r from 0.1 to 1. Areas under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROCs) were used to evaluate the performances of TEOAE SampEn in diagnosing MD cochlear symptoms. In terms of result, TEOAE SampEn based on the parameters of (N = 772, m = 2, r = 0.2) resulted in the maximum AUROCs = 0.7732 and 0.8421 in diagnosing MD hearing loss and tinnitus, respectively. In conclusion, TEOAE SampEn provides good performances and demonstrates great potential of assessment for MD cochlear symptoms. In future, recruitment of more participants, especially MD with tinnitus only without hearing loss, and other OHC-related disease, is necessary to further support the findings of this study.