Abstract
Endolymphatic hydrops is a disorder of inner ear and is associated with abnormal fluctuations in the endolymph fluid. These fluctuations cause an increase of pressure in scala media of the cochlea. The symptoms of endolymphatic hydrops include hearing loss especially at low frequencies and balance problems. To investigate the reason of hearing loss at low frequencies, we aim to analyze endolymphatic hydrops with the finite element cochlear model which is considered activity of outer hair cells. At first, we developed models of endolymphatic hydrops by loading static pressure in scala media. Each pressure of model is 10, 100, 500 Pa. Next, we analyzed the normal cochlear model and the endolymphatic models with loading sound pressure at frequency of 125 Hz to 2 kHz. As the results, the displacement of the basilar membrane of the endolymphatic hydrops model was smaller than the numerical result obtained from the normal cochlear model at low frequencies under 500 Hz. Also, characteristic frequency of the endolymphatic model was not matched with characteristic frequency of the normal cochlear model at low frequencies. These results show that increase of pressure in scala media might cause hearing loss at low frequencies.
