Picometer scale vibrometry in the human middle ear using a surgical microscope based optical coherence tomography and vibrometry system

Wihan Kim; Sangmin Kim; Shuning Huang; John S Oghalai; Brian E Applegate

doi:10.1364/BOE.10.004395

Picometer scale vibrometry in the human middle ear using a surgical microscope based optical coherence tomography and vibrometry system

Biomed Opt Express. 2019 Aug 2;10(9):4395-4410. doi: 10.1364/BOE.10.004395. eCollection 2019 Sep 1.

Authors

Wihan Kim¹, Sangmin Kim², Shuning Huang², John S Oghalai¹, Brian E Applegate^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.
² Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA.
³ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.

Abstract

We have developed a highly phase stable optical coherence tomography and vibrometry system that attaches directly to the accessory area of a surgical microscope common to both the otology clinic and operating room. Careful attention to minimizing sources of phase noise has enabled a system capable of measuring vibrations of the middle ear with a sensitivity of < 5 pm in an awake human patient. The system is shown to be capable of collecting a wide range of information on the morphology and function of the ear in live subjects, including frequency tuning curves below the hearing threshold, maps of tympanic membrane vibrational modes and thickness, and measures of distortion products due to the nonlinearities in the cochlear amplifier.

Abstract

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