Getting good images of the middle ear and all its parts is tricky. But it’s needed for scientists who want to do things like repair damage or make devices to help aging middle ears function better.
According to the Canadian Health Measures Survey, about 20 per cent of adults aged 19 to 79 years have at least mild hearing loss in at one or both ears, while close to 47 per cent of adults aged 60 to 79 years have some level of hearing loss. Damage to the middle ear is a common contributor to hearing loss.
There are several challenges to getting good images of the middle ear, especially 3D images, according to Hanif Ladak, a professor of biomedical engineering at Western University.
>Read more on the Canadian Light Source website